EBSCO Industries is an American company founded in 1944 by Elton Bryson Stephens Sr. and headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama.

The "EBSCO" acronym is based on Elton Bryson Stephens Company.

[1] EBSCO is one of the largest privately held companies in Alabama, and one of the top 200 in the U.S., based on revenues and employee numbers, according to Forbes Magazine.

[2] EBSCO was co-founded by Elton Bryson Stephens Sr. and his wife Alys Robinson Stephens in 1944 to sell magazine subscriptions, personalized binders and magazine racks to the U.S. Armed Forces.

[3] They named this "Military Service Company", and over the next decade acquired several other companies that were eventually combined to form EBSCO Industries Inc.