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To: edamo who wrote (131981)	6/9/1999 11:03:00 AM
From: John Koligman	Respond to of 176387

This weeks BW has an article on Gerstner's 'consigliere', a guy by the name of Ricciardi. The following paragraph is interesting, IBM has been fairly active in acquiring companies all along, but they are small and fill holes in IBM's portfolio of products. Note what Gerstner says about 'large' acquisitions... Regards, John Ricciardi's Mark on IBM BUYING Since Gerstner arrived in 1993, Big Blue has swallowed 58 companies--without a hitch. Credit Ricciardi, who has helped shape strategy and smoothly close those deals. Ricciardi keeps IBM out of megadeals, preferring smaller companies that are easily digested. Says Gerstner: ''The legacy of this management group will include the deals we didn't do.'' Insiders say that list includes Apple Computer and Digital Equipment. SELLING IBM is not shy about pruning its businesses. Currently on the block: The high-end printer unit. Ricciardi scored a coup in November when he negotiated the sale of IBM's worldwide data-communications network to AT&T for $5 billion. Now, Ricciardi is pushing for IBM to cut back its struggling memory-chip business. TECHNOLOGY Ricciardi took a look at IBM's patent portfolio and realized Big Blue had ignored a key area of technology--software. So Ricciardi pushed to aggressively enforce the company's software patents with companies, including Oracle and Adobe Systems. Result: IBM's patent revenue more than doubled, to $1.1 billion, last year. CONSENT DECREE IBM's 1956 antitrust consent decree with the Justice Dept. made IBM overly gun-shy. Ricciardi negotiated an end to the decree in 1996--providing a huge boost to morale and freeing IBM to be more competitive. Now, the company's sales force is allowed to package IBM hardware in its service deals, something that was prohibited by the decree.