Thread regarding IBM layoffs

What about parts service for the US. Field got hit hard. Anyone at the Mechanicsburg site? Sad , lots of managers there but few worker bees.

IBM absolutely will not buy redhat. Not that the company isn’t viable. They have a strong following and are still innovating.

Tell me one company ibm had acquired in the past decade that was still innovating?

IBM buys as companies stop innovating and commoditize that product until it the market is dry. They then dump it on the Indians or Chinese

There's still a lot of overhead to be cut out of Watson Health. A LOT of IBM refugees saw WH as a lifeboat and they jumped onboard to hang on for a few more years. Truven, Phycor, Merge, etc. are thick with senior level IBM managers who have no idea what they are doing, but, they know how to play the "game" at IBM. The plan would have worked if there had been some growth, but, revenues are collapsing at the acquisitions and there are NO new products to sell because Disanzo, Rometty and Legrand cannot get new product out the door.

Micro focus just set the price. They sold SUSE (a 303 millionrevenue company) for 2.5 billion. Given that, Redhat should sell for approx 25 billion. Approx the value that the IBM non-strategic service sector should sell for. My guess is it would be an all stock swap to eliminate taxes. The executive savings on spinning out service will save another 1500 exec salaries, and the elimination of the overlap via letting the Redhat management take over would save another 2 billion. If you restructure the dividend in the process to bring the “new” IBM into alignment with the other high tech dividends, then you are looking at yet another 3 billion in savings. Also note you dump a pile of head count out the door via dumping services. That has a long term savings on “going forward” additive costs. (matching IRA, healthcare,retirement, etc etc)

@ugh - my two cents (first post here) - I think we'd have to go the cloud way in order to survive. they (ginni and co) seem to be unable to steer the ship in that direction. buying a leader in the space is not going to happen as the valuation is through the roof and the money was spent on fake purchases that fed watson. i am split on red hat, but no matter what at 25B market cap and a 30% customary acquisition premium i think it's outside of our affordability range (i highly doubt that banks would be lining up to finance this adventure) - yet, nothing can surprise me any more

Hi B1x. So let’s ask a question. What if IBM sold services (IBM India) and used the revenue to buy Redhat and install the CEO of Redhat as the new CEO of IBM. Would that sway the IT industry???

IBM might still be able to sway investment markets by its sheer financial size, but it will never again sway the IT industry

Hello WCD. You are absolutely correct about IBM. When I said IBM jumps in with both feet, I meant that IBM “jumps in”, BUT not that IBM understands, or should even jump in. In fact I believe IBM is quasi misguided when it comes to the “new” IBM, but remember this. Ibm is a massive gorilla and can sway markets just because they are big. That doesn’t mean they know what they are doing, or that they should have entered that market. Rohm, SAA, office vision, etc etc all come to mind. What I am saying is IBM is transitioning and they will sway the market that they choose to play in. Whether that is good for the new IBM or not, is a decision the investment community will make. If you are in Services, I believe you will have new management quite soon

Post shows great optimistic view of IBM being able to execute something with both feet. Anyone remember OFFICEVISION??? THAT was a true dog. Data center projects signed and crashed (Texas) and that was using both feet. Consulting gigs gone and died. 22 quarters decline revenue. I think Ginny used both feet on those numbers. Watson health is decimated - no more feet there. IBM can want to do something, doing it is another matter.