Thread regarding IBM layoffs

Why not be ready but wait for the RA (we all know it is coming sooner or later)? I figure this is the only way I will ever get a bonus :).

2owk. You are absolutely correct. IBM has adopted a fortune 250 strategy. Almost every fortune 250 customer worldwide is a system z customer. THAT’s IBM’s target market. 85% of all revenue comes from fortune 250. Every offering from IBM will be tailored to take advantage of the system z in whatever form the customer wants to consume it in. Traditional Z, LINUX, Power front end, blockchain, strategic initiatives, etc etc etc. As long as something in the solution touches the z, IBM is happy. That’s what a fortune 250 strategy is all about. Focus on what brought you to the dance and everything else can go to the BP/channel/spinoff. This makes marketing mean and lean. Remember 10% or less of all the customers do 85% of the revenue. The remaining 90% of the customers can go thru the channel/spinoff company and IBM will make money on the IP. Lean and mean = “as a service”, strategic initiatives, cloud, AI, security All built around The Fortune 250 Z customers. Everything else will get spun off.

IMO the only think holding IBM together is z, all the profit revolves around it, mainframe software, high margin maintenance for machines which do not break very often, outsourcing (aka, new cloud), hardware, storage, leasing.... Agree most of the revenue comes from fortune 250, but how do you stop supporting smaller companies. IBM blew their shot a Linux when they sold the x86 server business to Lenovo. They are missing all the growth, legacy is all that remains.

It’s true “legacy” Z made IBM’s last quarter!!! 112% growth over 400 customers worldwide. The same cannot be said for “legacy” Power and DASD Sales (2% and 4% growth world wide respectively). I believe “1hen’s” reference to legacy was made as it relates to legacy DASD, and Power and their associated Channel and Marketing costs, independent of the Legacy Z customers and their associated costs. Z must be viewed thru a separate “legacy” lens due to it’s limited amount of customers. The customer set is rather limited, but they represented a substantial amount of revenue to IBM. Honestly if the average Power user spent like the average Z customer did, IBM would be quite pleased.

"Legacy" is what gave IBM a successful last quarter. They can dump it if they want but it would be shortsighted.

This comes from the yahoo finance page.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/slow-growth-plagues-ibm-stock-034345635.html

IBM needs to divorce the everything else while it still has value. That means services (non-strategic), Power and dasd (manufacturing), and all marketing non fortune 250 including the channel. I believe all of this will be announced by Dec. The board wants growth or the perception via the street of trying to achieve growth. To get there, they have to divorce the slower growing parts of IBM and harvest value out of them, while they still have value.. The only way to do that is to divorce the legacy and use the revenue to either buy back stock, or buy their way into something that the street believe has value. I still believe IBM will buy into LINUX in a big way as that is where all of the strategic initiatives are built around.

I left IBM six months ago as my job went to India. I work for a company now that treats me with respect and appreciation and encouragement and decency and after years with IBM I had forgotten what is was like to enjoy work. I like to think that IBM executives and CEO will get their Karma but I cant waste anymore time on incompetence and soulless vacuums. There is life after IBM

No, I got out before I was RA’d and it is oh so satisfying.

Just to be clear, you were RAed?