'IBM is now a very different company' says CEO as Q1 2022 beats expectations

Freed from the financial anchor that was its infrastructure services division - spun out as Kyndryl in November - IBM kicked off calendar Q1 of 2022 with something that has eluded it for years: decent growth. Big Blue has undergone some changes as it adapts to modern computing in the cloud, and CEO Arvind Krishna said trading …

[DJV]

IBM is now a very different company

Absolutely! In the past, the saying went, "No one ever got fired for buying IBM!"

Now, it's more like: "No one in their right mind will buy from IBM."

[Doctor Syntax]

"client engineering"

A new one for the Bingo card.

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes, it is a "different company." A pale imitation of its former self, fraught with numerous lawsuits, failed contracts, and abject failure to deliver, hence the shedding of that soon-to-be-expensive services division.

Nothing like divesting yourself of a "division" before the bills for their failures hit the fan in court.

[cjcox]

We need to wait

Some companies are masters of "creative accounting". Probably need to see several consecutive quarters before making any determination.

And IBM is "big", which means they can masquerade "stuff" at will via acquisitions and sell offs. So, even after a year, we might still not truly know what is going on.

[TM™]

I'm not sure that without a cash cow monopoly (Office - MS, DB - Oracle, Ink - HP, Advertising - Google) these companies can make money. The need to quickly produce returns to shareholders severely limits big company's abilities to do things well, let alone innovate, or, worse still, turn things around. These companies are forced to make 'making money' the goal, but the paradox is the pursuit of money (as opposed to excellence, customer satisfaction, employee retention, etc) is not profitable. All that is left is stupid things like cutting expenses - e.g. sacking all your skilled staff, to make things look profitable while making one's executive bonus.

[Korev]

I'm not sure that without a cash cow monopoly (Office - MS, DB - Oracle, Ink - HP, Advertising - Google)

I'd count the mainframes as one for IBM here. Vendor lockin -->

[James Anderson]

Yep for years the mainframe hardware and software been subsidising the increasingly frantic efforts to grow a profitable AI/cloud/quantum/boondoggle business.

Creative accounting has transferred mainframe revenues to whatever current fantasy products they are pushing to convince wall street they have a long term future.

IBM is in the same position as UNISYS were twenty years ago. An extremely profitable legacy hardware and software business with lots of locked in customers but no viable new products.

At least UNISYS faded gracefully without abusing its customers and employees.

[Yes Me]

He's right about that

Yes, it's different. It was a genuinely good company to work for 3 decades ago. Now, why on earth would anybody work there?

[Korev]

Re: He's right about that

I saw some presentations from their Zürich research group a few years ago and was very surprised that IBM have smart people there doing interesting work.

[sanmigueelbeer]

We have strengthened our portfolio

Translation: With RedHat in our wing, we now have more money to burn.

we are leveraging our ecosystem

Translation: HR is doing a fantastic job terminating older staff members and replacing them with cheaper "alternatives".

we are streamlining our business

Translation: At IBM, we doing fabulous job double-crossing our sales team and their bonuses.

While I acknowledge there is always more to do

Translation: IBM is looking for other fat (and profitable) business to "absorb" so we can sink our teeth into that unsinkable bank account.

we are pleased with the start to the year

Translation: I got Ginny's helicopter! Yay, me!