1zjn. The one year anniversary of the Z14 (coming in July) is a VERY VERY big deal for IBM. Z14 pushed the revenue stream for IBM up starting in the last two weeks of Sept of 2017. IBM broke their revenue decline in the 4th Q of 2017, and in the first Q of 2018 mainly on the back of Z14. If you look historically at Mainframe, the revenue stream tends to flatten out at the 12-15 month mark after a new introduction. THUS IBM will have to do something drastic to stop the revenue decline already in forecast for end of 2018. I believe the spinoff of Services, and it’s body shop model is the logical choice. IBM will harvest out the annuity type services (think strategic initiatives, mostly cloud, security, and cognitive). All of the rest of the services business will go to Bain, who will integrate it into their offshore operation in India. IBM will use the sale price to buy their way into LINUX as they believe that’s where the strategic growth is. NET Net as Mainframe revenue shrinks, the Exec’s hands will be forced to do something drastic as the current run rate is not growing fast enough. Please note that means IBM direct head count in USA/Europe/onshore will shrink 70-80% from start of 2018 head count numbers. The IBM board is making a bet that they can get a higher valuation on a leaner/more streamlined strategic revenue/annuity stream. Buying into LINUX only feeds that narrative