The Singer Company, once the world's leading producer of sewing machines, was the successor to I.M. Singer & Co., established in 1851. Isaac M. Singer (1811-1875) had patented improvements resulting in the first commercially viable sewing machine. Edward Clark (1811-1882), who joined the firm in 1854, provided the planning skills and business acumen that ensured the firm's success. The company produced its first treadle-operated machine in 1856, and Clark introduced installment selling the same year. The firm was incorporated as the Singer Manufacturing Company in 1863, and from 1871 to 1872, it constructed a factory at Elizabethport, New Jersey, that was then the largest in the world devoted to a single product. Singer developed a worldwide sales organization. It built its first foreign factory at Glasgow in 1867 (replaced by a much larger works at Clydebank in 1882-1884) and another at Podolsk, Russia, in 1902. In the same year, Singer absorbed its major U.S. competitor, the Wheeler & Wilson Manufacturing Company.

Singer prospered during its first hundred years, but in the years 1951 to 1957, the domestic sewing machine market collapsed. The amount of home sewing done by American women declined sharply, and increasing Japanese imports caused Singer's market share to fall from 66% to 33%. The company made attempts to diversify into electronics and aerospace and was renamed the Singer Company in 1963. The sewing machine business continued to shrink as more women sought careers outside the home, and in mid-1986, it was spun off to a separate subsidiary, SSMC Inc. After the 1987 stock market crash, the company was acquired by Paul A. Bilzerian (1950-), a corporate raider, who quickly sold off eight of the twelve Singer divisions, including all rights to the Singer name. SSMC Inc. was sold to Semi-Tech Microelectronic's (Far East) Limited in April 1990. The much-shrunken Singer Company was renamed Bicoastal Corporation in October 1989.