Thread regarding IBM layoffs

@e9w Cloudera is hiring people. Come take a look https://cloudera.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com/External_Career

@OP Acquisition closed this morning and IBM immediately laid off 800 of us at Confluent.

@18j I’d agree the scaling of these acquisitions in always where it falls short. They imagine the global sales teams can just absorb these new products but it simply dilutes them, forcing them to focus what they know they CAN sell

@1b5

Not always but with IBM They are always late to the table and then IBM Employees face the consequences

@1ax

They will have about 4 billion cash on hand. My recommendation for anyone still with Big Blew. Update your resume. And anyone who does not and makes it past the next RA. Expect a very small GDP Amount. Alvind and the Pipmunks are going to feed themselves like pigs in a trough and you will be lucky if you get scraps.

There's nothing strategic about it. IBM makes big acquisitions like this when their internal financial forecasts show Revenue declining a few quarters out and they need to preemptively "buy Revenue". It's a sign of a very unhealthy company that cannot organically develop new products or acquire new customers. The story has been the same for the last 15+ years.

IBM’s reported move toward an $11B acquisition of Confluent is not a bold AI strategy—it’s a familiar, expensive reflex. Under Arvind Krishna, IBM has increasingly relied on checkbook innovation to compensate for years of internal stagnation, declining developer mindshare, and a chronic inability to organically compete with hyperscalers.

This deal follows the same tired script as Red Hat, Apptio, Turbonomic, Instana, and HashiCorp: overpay for a respected but niche infrastructure asset, promise “synergies,” then quietly bury it inside IBM’s bureaucracy where momentum slows and talent exits. IBM doesn’t scale products anymore—it absorbs them until they lose velocity.

burgeoning IBM Research division

I do not think that word means what they think it means.

Either that, or they haven't noticed all of the layoffs and former IBM Research labs and sites being closed down.

Seems some folks think it's a good deal or it will be.

Confluent Stock Soars on IBM Acquisition. IBM Is Getting a Really Good Deal. --

https://www.barrons.com/articles/confluent-stock-price-ibm-deal-acquisition-7804fb16

By: Mackenzie Tatananni and Adam Clark
Updated Dec 08, 2025, 11:40 am EST / Original Dec 08, 2025, 6:08 am EST

Sometimes, investors freak out when a company makes a deal. That wasn’t the case with International Business Machines and its $11 billion purchase of Confluent, a deal that speaks to Big Blue’s lofty ambitions in artificial intelligence.

The storied tech giant said Monday that it would acquire all of Confluent’s issued and outstanding common stock for $31 a share, representing an enterprise value of $11 billion.

The subsequent stock reaction indicated the market was excited about the deal. IBM was up 1.6% to $312.90 at 11:35 a.m. on Monday following the announcement. Shares have surged more than 41% this year, outstripping a 16% gain for the benchmark S&P 500.

Confluent stock, meanwhile, soared 29% to $29.85, putting the shares on pace for their largest same-day percent increase since a 34% jump in February 2024, according to Dow Jones Market Data. The stock was trading near the middle of its 52-week range on Monday.

Confirmation of the deal should come as no surprise to anyone watching the space. Reports surfaced just two months ago that Confluent was exploring a sale, D.A. Davidson analyst Rudy Kessinger recalled in a research note.

Along with Confluent and Amazon Web Services, IBM is one of the largest providers of managed Apache Kafka, a open-source distributed streaming system that processes data. In that regard, an acquisition “would not be all that surprising,” Kessinger wrote.

“Still, we would have expected Confluent would try and deliver more than one just quarter of strong results before selling,” he continued. Kessinger noted that Confluent shares could have likely appreciated to the deal value if Confluent posted several strong quarters in a row and showed “some stabilization in cloud growth.”

Instead, it settled for a deal now. The transaction is expected to close by the middle of 2026, subject to approval by Confluent shareholders, who hold roughly 62% of of the voting power of Confluent’s outstanding common stock. The board of directors of both IBM and Confluent already have approved the deal.

IBM said it expects the acquisition to be accretive to adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization within the first full year of closing, and to add to free cash flow by the second.

The deal “fits with IBM’s focus on infrastructure software assets within the open source ecosystem,” Evercore ISI analyst Amit Daryanani said. He noted that the purchase of Confluent was “one of the larger softer deals IBM has done,” and comes on the heels of the $6.5 billion acquisition of cloud-infrastructure company HashiCorp earlier this year.

It’s just the latest deal in an AI-forward world where data has become a valuable form of currency and the management of said data has taken center stage. Confluent’s platform is used for managing data streams, which has become increasingly important for companies looking to integrate their private data into AI models.

IBM has demonstrated a commitment to AI, both through its products on the market today as well as through its burgeoning IBM Research division. The stock’s double-digit percentage gain this year comes as optimism abounds over IBM’s progress in the space.

The company said in October that it had agreed to a partnership with Anthropic to use the AI startup’s models in IBM software.

IBM has undergone several transformations since its founding as a maker of data-processing machines. Once a leader in the personal computer market, it sold that business in 2005.

Currently, it generates the bulk of its revenue from consulting and software, though it has also emerged as a leader in quantum computing as hype builds around the nascent technology.

For IBM, the future looks brighter than it has in a long time.

@sq

Alvind swung and missed again. Another acquisition, another round of layoffs, another quarter of “cost synergies” masking leadership’s failures. IBM keeps paying premium prices for companies it can’t integrate, then dumps employees to paper over the mess. Nothing says “strategic vision” like gutting teams in the middle of Q4 while bragging about growth metrics built on debt and wishful thinking. This isn’t transformation — it’s corporate whiplash.

And Krabanaugh. What an awful steward of IBMs Finances. He should not be able to run the budget of a hot dog stand.

Alvind and Krapanaugh got played for like the f@t fools that they are.

Alvind should be deported for another overpaid blunder and Krapanaugh should learn to use an effin calculator. What a couple of stupid apes.

I saw the stats, they are not good...--29.63% Net Income Margin, only reason why allegedly worth so much is due to growth stats. Maybe they want to lose money on purpose for tax write off? They seem to want to wash hands clean of us quickly for 2025 write offs in a big hurry too. No other explanation why to dump people in middle of Q4 peak sales season...for tax write offs.

@s8 - Apache Kafka is an open source, IBM is paying $11 Billion for the extension. It shows that IBM technical leader are stup1d, lazy, incompetent and id1ots. They are only good to makes slides and sit in meetings that amount to nothing. That is my experience with IBM Fellows, DE's, STSM's and Seniors. A bunch of good for nothing .. NO surprise,. the company is going down and the cabal at the top are stealing as much as they can, very fast.

Confluent built a number of extensions on top of Apache Kafka. Not sure that they are worth $11 billion but they do have a lot of customers.

@pp you are right. It's not just Alvind of IBM but even Nadella of Microsoft who is now investing $17.5 Billion from Microsoft in India. Aren't there also billionaires in India to fund their tech ? There are plenty of them but they don't want to risk any money on these investments. So why do they need to steal so much from the US ? More importantly why are they not investing in US folks ? This is another Indian scam from Modi and his crooks. Google and see if Nadella is investing large sums in India or not - this story appeared this week on many news outlets. It disappeared from this site at least twice already.

Confluent is just a company that hosts Apache Kafka, a free and open source event store database. Kafka has been around for 15 years, it's not new, and has nothing to do with AI.

@pp

Because they are incapable. Without the west, They'd still be p00ping in the streets

@jf
for bleep's sake
why can't indians just create their own darn company in india
to compete with ibm
they would have more control and make more money for themselves
these american companies have turned into tech plantations

@k9 you are quite right.
You just have to go to the Confluent site
https://www.confluent.io/about/

And you'll see a lot of folks at Confluent are going to get rich quick and will disappear in the next year or 3. Meanwhile, IBM will be holding the bag and going nowhere but down with their failed acquisition strategy. Where are Apptio and Flashicorp products that billions of dollars were paid for ? Going nowhere. Cloud today, gone tomorrow.That is IBM under Alvind and the Pipmunks.

"IBM accelerates cloud drive"

IBM completely blew it with cloud 15 years ago.

What's next, a $20B blockchain acquisition?

Full report after it was officially announced.

IBM accelerates cloud drive with $11 billion Confluent deal as AI demand booms --

https://www.reuters.com/legal/transactional/ibm-buy-confluent-11-billion-deal-cloud-computing-drive-2025-12-08/

By: Arsheeya Bajwa and Milana Vinn
December 8, 2025 12:58 PM CST | Updated 17 hours ago

• IBM boosts AI portfolio with Confluent deal
• Offer price at 34% premium to Confluent's last close
• Deal to be funded with cash on hand, expected to close mid-2026
• Acquisition will boost IBM's recurring revenue - analyst

Dec 8 (Reuters) - IBM (IBM.N) said on Monday it will buy data infrastructure company Confluent (CFLT.O) in a deal valued at $11 billion, ramping up its cloud-computing offerings to capitalize on an AI-driven demand bo-m.

Big Blue, under CEO Arvind Krishna, has doubled down on M&A to beef up its cloud and software business - a high-growth, high-margin area - as customers invest to upgrade their digital infrastructure to house complex artificial intelligence applications.

Mountain View, California-based Confluent provides technology needed to manage massive, real-time data streams for artificial intelligence models.

"IBM and Confluent together will enable enterprises to deploy generative and agentic AI better and faster," Krishna said in a statement.

"With the acquisition of Confluent, IBM will provide the smart data platform for enterprise IT, purpose-built for AI."

TALKS BEGAN IN SUMMER

The companies began initial talks about the possibility of a deal over the summer, building on their existing relationship through IBM’s partner network, according to a source familiar with the discussions.

After IBM signaled its interest, Confluent hired advisers and launched a formal auction process, but IBM ultimately prevailed, according to a source familiar with the matter. As part of the deal, Confluent CEO and co-founder Jay Kreps is joining IBM Software and will report to Rob Thomas, an IBM spokesperson said.

Centerview advised IBM, while Morgan Stanley advised Confluent. Cooley served as Confluent’s legal counsel, and Paul Weiss advised IBM.

The offer price of $31 per share represents a premium of around 34% to Confluent's last close. Confluent's shares surged nearly 30%, while IBM was up marginally in early trading.

The Confluent stock is up nearly 44% since October 7, the last trading session before Reuters reported that the company was exploring a sale after attracting acquisition interest.

"IBM is buying the critical data firehose that supports the AI hype," said Michael Ashley Schulman, chief investment officer at Running Point Capital.

"With this purchase, IBM improves ... recurring revenue, tightening its grip on large enterprises."

STRING OF ACQUISITIONS

IBM has long turned to deal-making to gain scale and fend off competition, especially in cloud computing.

In April last year, the company bought cloud firm HashiCorp in a deal valued at $6.4 billion. Its $34 billion deal for Red Hat in 2019 is credited by analysts as the central catalyst that boosted its cloud business.

IBM will fund the Confluent deal with cash on hand and the transaction is expected to close by the middle of 2026.

The deal is expected to boost IBM's adjusted core earnings within the first full year of the transaction's completion and it will add to free cash flow in year two.

What a load of bs . They need to stop pretending the job cuts are for AI. Its bs for the commoners and and non industry stooges to innandate them into believing this.

The company is such a bipolar Custer hole . Record profits ... losing consulting deals, THE HIDDEN , elusive AI, which can make miracles, yet I've never see implemented at the sector worked at...

They'll do anything to not admit they're outsourcing the jobs to India.

@hn

Unfortunately that won’t happen

If I was an institutional holder I’d be calling for Alvinds and Krabanaughs firing and or resignation

@h1 absolutely spot on. I wouldn't trust those buffoons, Alvind and Krabanaugh to run a public toilet in the middle of NYC, let alone the family buffet.

Alvind needs to spend some quality time in the company of the gangstas in El Salvador prison. The experience will give him a whole new meaning about Red Hat after he becomes someone's girlfriend or beetch before being sent home to Uncle Modi.

@gx

Yup that f@t b0z0 Alvind and that other f@t oaf Krabanaugh are awful dealmakers and stewards of IBM's treasury.

I wouldn't trust those 2 buff00ns to run a family budget.

I understand there is a premium but 11 billion? And that Red Hat mess. Paying 34 billion should have stripped Alvind of Citizenship and sent back to India.

well if IBM is paying $11B for it, then that means it's market value is only about $1B

They will have about 4 billion cash on hand after this purchase. If anyone is still with IBM. Update your resume. I think there will be an RA in Q1

EFF Alvind
EFF Krabanaugh
EFF Joanne Wrong

EFF The Pipmunks

You don't owe those filthy pigs anything

they might as well change the name from Confluent to Conf _u_c_k-e-d

IBM's total debt fluctuates slightly depending on the reporting period, but recent figures show it around $58 billion to $67 billion USD, with sources pointing to figures like $66.57 billion (Sept 2025 estimate), $67.72 billion (June 2025), and $58.40 billion (Dec 2024). This total includes both short-term and long-term obligations, with substantial cash reserves often held against it.

The 17 billion IBM is carrying on their books comes down by 11 billion There is no borrowing (from a financial view point) going on

I'm sure they way overpaid for it just like Ginni and AK paid $34B for Red Hat

@fz

Load up the company with debt. Cut more people in 2026. Alvind gets 100 million.

I won't be surprised if IBM does an Amazon style cut and goes for a 10% cut

@fh Cash does not mean that it's not borrowed money , notwithstanding that even if it were from their FCF , it still add up to Debt , so yes topping 78 US Billion now , unsustainable IMHO

@fh

They have to borrow that money. They don't have an extra 11 billion dollars sitting around

@dr

IBM stated it is an all-cash transaction. No debt.

So adding another 11 Billion brings the total debt up to over 70 Billion

Krabanaugh is supposed to be the CFO Is he as Stup1d as Alvind?

What a couple of 1diots they are

Ex-IBMer here: best thing I’ve done was to quit ibm and join a fast-growing startup. I recall Arvind trying to implement ‘cloud’ since 2011 I think. He failed then; then they purchased Softlayer, which was a disaster - another fail. But the guy kept ‘failing up’ until becoming the CEO.

It still amazes me how much customers paid for IBM’s software and/or services.

Executives at IBM have the right idea, buy products instead of in house development. Senior technical leaders at IBM are mediocre, lazy, incompetent and useless. As an example, the in house cloud development, it was led by complete id1ots and the results are here. I joined an organization recently, all its products in the last 10 years are a bust, still the re--rded architects are racking huge bonuses.

@cy

It’s so romantic

So IBM didn’t have enough money to keep thousands of loyal employees…
…but it did have $11 billion lying around to buy Confluent?

Under Alvind Kushion, IBM has turned “cost-cutting” into a sport — cutting real people with real families — only to splurge billions on acquisitions to make Wall Street smile.

You can’t preach “efficiency” one minute and then drop $11B the next.
You can’t tell employees there’s a hiring freeze and budget crisis while writing the biggest check of the year.

This isn’t strategy.
This is corporate hypocrisy at its finest.

Maybe instead of buying another company, IBM should try investing in the people who built it.