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and that is why Warren Buffet is not too worried either. because the share price has come down IBM will buy more of its own shares. Therefore Buffet will own a bigger part of the company with out actually buying more shares. almost a win-win!!! (except for the people who are going to loose their jobs as a result of this, but who cares about them?)

which makes sense for them... Lets assume they went with your solution. All fine. up and running in no time. Then you get hit by a bus or leave the company. Then things go wrong. How are you going to explain this to senior management.

If they take IBM/Oracle/etc. and things go wrong? you call them. they fly over an exec you can beat up and all is fine.

and are these the same consultants that suggested the EPS target was a good idea?

I think he did say that... and it sounds like they have (for now)

you are assuming here that IBM is a tech company. It isn't. It is a financial engineering company. And the problem is that there is only so much you can do in this space (otherwise you become like Enron).

what a surprise... the question was not if... but when. and the answer might well be: today.

the money was raised to buy back shares. That is actually a better investment (saves on dividents, and you don't have to bring back any cash to the US). But yes... what if interest rates rises... either buy back less shares (or sell them again), but that is not really an option with the EPS target.

Maybe some IBM exec can answer this for us

the moral of the IBMers does NOT contribute to the $20 EPS so therefore is irrelevant. Firing people... ooohhh sorry RA-ing them does.

You know you are stuffed when execs talk with euphemisms like Resource Action. They are no longer proud of what they are doing, they hide behind words.

bluemix looks actually quite good... but I wonder if it is enough (ie. can it make up for the billions lost in hardware sales) and how long before these things get commoditized? And we all know how good IBM is at that!!!

Ginni is very unlikely to turn around the company. She is a livelong IBMer. Just like Sam Palmisano before her. And both have been undoing the good work that Lou Gerstner did and continued the bad work he did.

IBM is a financial engineering company... now, if it could become a sales company again...