WBM and thread. Excellent article in Forbes on IBM and their strategy of selling their technology to Dell, Cisco EMC etc. Very interesting:
forbes.com
some of the better quotes:
Enjoy! Alohal
" Dell posted profit growth of 55% last year
as IBM's PC business ran up $1 billion in
losses. Yet IBM will sell Dell up to $16 billion
in parts over seven years, giving Dell
access to IBM's patent library, chip
designers and software engineers. Lately
some people in IBM's PC group fret that IBM
may end up providing technical support for
Dell's computers, removing the one
feature--service--that differentiates IBM's
boxes from Dell's.
"This is a huge coup for Dell--IBM is finally
giving in and becoming a supplier to them,"
says 20-year IBMer Joseph Formichelli, who
left last year to run Toshiba's U.S. unit. It
must worry people inside IBM, he says:
"You've grown up hating your mortal enemy.
Now your company is supplying them with
artillery shells."
Some IBMers admit to it. When the Dell deal
came, David Thomas, who runs IBM's PC
unit, had to prop up the troops, who were
trying to recover from their worst year
ever. "The feeling was, 'Why now?'" he
says.
It promises big bucks, but it also will make it
ever harder for IBM's product divisions to
gain any ground. "It's what every dying
company does in its final moments," scoffs
William F. Zachmann, president of Canopus
Research in Duxbury, Mass. "Once your
businesses start to fail, you try to make
money selling pieces." |
