IBM is Shutting Down (Piecewise)
Thomas Claburn has written a great deal about IBM layoffs in recent years. 4 weeks ago he wrote about another apparent shutdown and the first comment said: "Just move everything to India and be done with it. Oh, and don't forget to turn the lights off. Sell off the land to real-estate companies/land speculators and buy back some more stock - seems to be the usual playbook. Over in blighty, how long will they hang on to Hursley? The bean counters don't like seeing rolling countryside and acres of manicured lawns."
Someone there mentioned what happened to IBM's site in Warwick. I worked there for a few days well over a decade ago. Many former IBM buildings in the UK turn into something else.
"I've Become Meaninlgess" (IBM) someone uttered and another said: "Sounds like IBM are winding down! Research is something that sets companies apart. If they separate all the bofs it wont be as effective even with Teams etc. Is it separating into a "consultancy". No direct revenue, no job? If they play that game they will decline, there will be no differentiator. I don't see their AI becoming big, just like their cloud; too little, too late."
The last and maybe best comment said:
Almaden -- Home of huge missed opportunitiesIn the early 2000's I worked on a project with IBM research. I got to visit the Almaden facility a few times. While there we would be given a briefing on the work being done there. At the time IBM had a web search engine that was as good as Google's. Google was in its infancy and hadn't yet come to dominate the search market. IBM had a working prototype of a large cluster of inexpensive (Intel) servers working together cooperative. Google and Amazon were both working on similar technology. I recognized immediately the immense value and potential of this work. Had IBM acted on these innovations it could have been the Google of search and the Amazon of cloud computing. But we all know how this story ended. IBM didn't have a clue how to commercialize and monetize this technology. As Lou Gerstner once said: "Good idea's don't come out of IBM research. They escape."
The real estate value of the Almaden site is spectacular. I am sure IBM is already planning its sale and factoring that income into future earnings statements.
To the brilliant people in IBM research I have simple advice -- GET OUT. Go somewhere where your innovations will see the light of day and truly change the world. That place is not IBM.
"Let's keep on closing IBM offices," one person joked, "I am all for it. That way I won't have to go to the stupid office anymore 3 times a week!"
The next comment said, "everyone has to understand the Tamil Taco mentality here. The more US offices that close, the bigger the sum on Alvind's final bonus paycheck in 2026. Given that things are not looking up for IBM sales in Q3, at least he has another source of money for his bonus pool. It beats moonlighting as an undercover janitor in Armonk. Not even Slob Thomas has thought that far ahead (as yet !)."
IBM is basically being liquidated; what's left of it is handed over to remaining shareholders and "suits". There will be no IBM left. █