The stock is still dropping like a brick through a plate glass window....so we must be winning.
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Yes, IBM is not Salesforce, built via acquisitions, and that's perfectly fine.
IBM, on the other hand, talks AI, Quantum dev...
Thoughts confirmed, thank you very much for the dialogue.
@f6 There's nothing wrong with it, but you need to acknowledge what it makes you - a holding company with a portfolio of investments NOT a technology company. IBM is a modern day Computer Associates / Platinum Technology pretending to be an actual tech company.
Do you mind if I ask you and others:
1) What are your thoughts about companies that grow via M&As to the point that it represents more than half the revenue? What does it tell you being part of an organization that has gone through so many?
2) What type of CEO gets in and does that? It's almost as if, mistakes get made again and again, and they still fall for it or keep them for too long.
Excellent post, simple, but thoughtful.
Thanks. Makes perfect sense now. I completely missed the fact that they divested, but also made them buy, which created fictional revenue.
I also forgot the inorganic growth.
All of it makes it worse....
Thank you so much for taking the rime to add more to the scenario.
The initial jump after 2021 was due to the contracts Kyndryl signed as part of the divestiture. The deal included Kyndryl agreeing to buy a cr@pload of stuff from IBM after they were spun off to artificially inflate IBM revenues for the first year or two after the transaction.
Also, consider where IBM revenue would be without all the acquisitions:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mergers_and_acquisitions_by_IBM
Hashicorp, Aptio, Turbonomic, RED HAT, not to mention a ton of smaller consulting firm acquisitions that have kept IBMC numbers above water.
IBM never recovered from the Gin(ni) and Tonic damage. It was THAT severe.
Let's not forget. Kyndryl ended up being a no growth endeavor (negative actually) and finally divested. Can we say that her strategy (that led to the divestiture of the managed infrastructure services business) was initiated during Ginni?
Since AK took office, he went from the lowest ever $57.4B in his first year back up a bit $62.8 last year (using the same numbers posted by @dn). This puts the average of $1.35B per year (I know this is not how it grew, but just for simplification), which makes it minimal (low growth).
So in his first year he lost money, to then bring it up just a bit YoY. The reason you bring an insider as CEO is because the individual is supposed to enable quick turnarounds with no or minimal learning curve. He was already doing Red Hat (as in, jumped to the opportunity to position himself).
Instead of a growth strategy, he implemented a cost-cutting, layoffs strategy, which in the event of IBM in and of itself is not the right way to go. Yes, he touted investments and growth strategies, none of which and in almost 5 years have seen the kind go growth trajectory that the market expected and IBM needed.
Now, if we look at the history of the company, and this is just my opinion, Ginni was a terrible CEO and she effectively was the one that did a "great job" at ending a beautiful legacy. She is responsible for IBM going down. Numbers don't lie.
What I still don't understand is how she managed to stay for 9 years. Yes, I know, but still doesn't make sense to me as to how a board, investor, shareholders allow it, and how journalists kept touting her as this "great executive". Plus, they gave her more money to s_c_r_ew things up even more???
Why in the world make the same mistake again?
I just don't get it.... I must be missing something....
Based on @dn numbers, we are still going down when you adjust for inflation.
Yep Sad, isn't it?
Every single time she was being interviewed as this "iconic CEO" after she left.... made me an expert at changing TV channels at the speed of light.
Legal / legal counsellors are not independent or removed from the politics, they li_ck the derrière of CEO, Chairman and the rest of the Board. Sometimes, they even have their own ambitions to be the top dog, say, like Accenture...
The good ones with ethics leave, but are the minority. These are typically Corporate Lawyers. Their "specialty" says it all. They start their careers "reviewing contracts" and they are generalists, so legal counsellors are just coordinators because they need to call in the experts to get things done...
@de Ginni stacked the deck in her favor. She hired a bunch the geriatric executives to fill the IBM Board Of Trustees during her reign of failure. And they rubber stamped all the garbage policies she put in front of them including her staying on for 8+ years in exchange for her giving them IBM shares.
AK has done little better if at all. The average age of the board members (13 of them) is now 64.4 years - in short, they are DINOSAURS. AK is a DINOSAUR too. Once he departs, maybe the CEO and Chairperson's positions should not be filled by the same person any more. Maybe one position should be eliminated entirely. It's an opportunity for corporate thieves like Ginni and AK to make money at the expense of employees and shareholders. All they do is loot and pillage from the corporation and then walk away with fistfuls of cash and lots of shares which they should not be entitled to. They need to be held accountable and there needs to be clawback for the many failures. Why doesn't IBM Legal go after them for failure to keep to Business Conduct Guidelines ? too chicken ? And same for Krapanaugh too for hiding losses, misrepresentation and trying to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear when it comes to stating results - it's lipstick on a pig. AK's "IBM India Friends And Family" job creation plan needs to be history yesterday. Talentless AK is needs to be history too. IBM is a sinking Titanic made in India.
Revenue $B
2011 106.9
2012 104.5
2013 99.8
2014 92.8
2015 81.7
2016 79.9
2017 79.1
2018 79.6
2019 77.1
2020 73.6
2021 57.4
2022 60.5
2023 61.9
2024 62.8
@bz Yes, it's the 2025 version of the story "The Emperor's New Clothes" starring Alvind, Krapanaugh, Rob the Slob and the rest of the Pipmunks.
They are all like this now. Look at NCR. 135 year old company who basically started IBM is falling apart
IBM stock down 17% over the last month to $234 from $283. Look out below. Only a few options left since IBM has decimated itself and no longer has the imagination or stamina or creativity or people to be Great Again. 1. Break itself up like AT&T and she how great that worked out. This was the plan after IBM's $8B loss under Akers before the biscuit G Man came in 4-1-93. 2. Buy another software company I guess IBM has about $15B cash on hand. 3. Get bought or merge with somebody. Oracle, Dell, Lenovo etc. 4. He-l go private under a LBO. It is such a dumpster fire right now with arrogant and pompous "leaders" who tell us our eyes are lying and we just need to look harder...
@ab absolutely true - you will notice that I posted no numerical values to see what happens... LOL !
Stock posts seem to be getting deleted quickly here.
You beat me to it! I was going to post the same (stock in red, while market in green), but hey, you are faster than fast!