🚀 go-pugleaf

On Sat, 3 Feb 2018 11:29:00 -0800 (PST), hanc...@bbs.cpcn.com wrote:
>On Friday, February 2, 2018 at 8:41:46 PM UTC-5, Quadibloc wrote:
>> > Then there's that whole "take IBM on head to head inthe computer market" which
>> > cost Xerox dearly in the 1970s.  No corporation can sustain the kind of loss
>> > which Xerox did and remain top dog in its core industry.
>> 
>> And now Oracle is doing the same thing, but against what's left of IBM.
>
>Is IBM in trouble today?
>
>Last I heard, it was buying back a lot of its stock.  That inflates
>the earnings per share since, since there are fewer shares, but it
>is a misleading indicator.  
>
>It seems (someone else could explain better) seems to evolved into
>a consulting company as opposed to a hardware company.  It still
>obviously makes the Z series, but it sold off so much of its
>hardware line.  Does it still have the economy of scale to support
>intensive research to keep knocking out improvements to hardware,
>as well as staff to maintain the complex operating systems?
>
>I think Unisys tried that route and while Unisys is still around,
>isn't it today a tiny fraction of what it once was (especially
>considering its parents)?
>
>Comments from anyone familiar with the current situation appreciated!

Cringely has written a lot about IBM in the past, although not so much in the
past year -- probably because of his recent ebook, "The Decline and Fall of
IBM."  Below are some recent columns.

Read with a grain of salt.  Skim through the comments with another grain.  He
seems to have overstated the situation somewhat, but my take is the gist is
correct, even if his timeline isn't.  Although IBM is becoming increasingly
irrelevant, it can take a long time for a big dinosaur to die.


https://www.cringely.com/2016/09/07/carrie-underwoods-american-idol-success-teaches-us-ibms-watson-failure/
https://www.cringely.com/2016/04/06/is-ibm-guilty-of-age-discrimination-part-2/
https://www.cringely.com/2016/03/28/is-ibm-guilty-of-age-discrimination-part-one/
https://www.cringely.com/2016/03/08/whats-happening-at-ibm/
https://www.cringely.com/2016/01/11/wheres-the-beef-ibm/
https://www.cringely.com/2015/07/21/ibm-is-so-screwed/
https://www.cringely.com/2015/03/30/the-indiana-pi-bill-ellen-pao-and-ibm/
https://www.cringely.com/2015/02/19/reporters-notebook-yahoo-ibm-ieee/
https://www.cringely.com/2015/01/26/ibm-right-gadfly/
https://www.cringely.com/2015/01/22/ibms-reorg-hell-launches-next-week/