The real question is what can IBM afford to dump revenue wise. IBM has become hyper sensitive to any drop in revenue and has managed it’s restructuring around it. If you downsize GTS by 1/3 can IBM absorb the drop of 8 billion. The same will be said for storage (another 1-1.5 billion). Redhat will bring approx 3 billion, and selling of low margin GTS may bring another 3 billion in OTC revenue. (storage maybe 500 million). So will IBM be willing to shrink to 70-72 billion if it was able to pocket 3-3.5 billion in OTC. I suspect if it raises the margins of the divisions via reducing headcount and overhead, they will cut that deal.
Good point by @YBPkgsd-2jgw.