In 1969, Kenneth Pontikes, a 29-year-old former salesman for IBM, borrowed $5,000 from his father to start a computer leasing business he named the Computer Discount Corp. In 1971, when Pontikes began to sell stock to the public, the name was changed to Comdisco. By the late 1970s, the company began to open offices overseas, and annual revenues topped $100 million. In the early 1990s, when revenues hit $2 billion, Comdisco ranked as the nation's leading computer equipment leasing company. By the end of the 1990s, the company, based in suburban Rosemont, was doing annual sales of $4 billion and employed nearly 1,500 people in the Chicago area. Comdisco expanded in the Internet boom, then collapsed, filing first for bankruptcy in July 2001 and then beginning liquidation in July 2002.

This entry is part of the Encyclopedia's Dictionary of Leading Chicago Businesses (1820-2000) that was prepared by Mark R. Wilson, with additional contributions from Stephen R. Porter and Janice L. Reiff.