IBM Starts 2026 a Much Smaller Company (Not Homage to Gerstner)
2 hours ago:
Yesterday: IBM Seems to be Doing to HashiCorp What It Did to Red Hat (Many Key People Leaving)
4 hours ago:
IBM is still squeezing the life out of Gerstner's death, not just as a distraction but also a form of revisionism and a misleading message about IBM's current trajectory. This article won't be about Gerstner; we just want to point out he became a diversionary means - an excuse for many bad things.
We still see many people leaving Red Hat and HashiCorp (we gave examples from both today). They are being bluewashed, but HashiCorp is still at an earlier phase or stage of bluewashing.
Once fully bluewashed, there won't be much left of them; neither structurally (e.g. a "Red Hat CEO") nor substantially. A company will get broken down and melted/welded onto "brand" or "brands".
I spoke to former people of IBM who had been bluewashed out of work (by IBM). They're very unhappy about it, but they're unable to speak about it in public [1, 2, 3]. IBM issues threats and is willing to lawyer up against critics. This is a really sinister aspect of being associated with IBM. They have a platoon of lawyers; forget about engineering.
Do people seriously believe that IBM is getting "bigger" (or in "big blue") by buying all those companies? Hell no! IBM is shrinking. Many people leave (resign, change job, retire etc.) and many are forced out. They never say so, they just express gratitude, speak of "last day" and something something "new chapter"... something something "journey".
People who get bluewashed out of their job (or bluewashed into unemployment) are gagged by NDAs. That's a very serious problem.
We must talk about this problem. Sometimes insiders let slip or leak information about that.
As one who believes firmly in transparency I intend to combat those NDAs and show the real IBM next year, even if that means writing about IBM every day.
Once you get identified as a "problem site" (e.g. to IBM) there's an upside: people get more curious, people tell colleagues about it, the bosses try to gag their workers, get more aggressive, and pressurise everyone, so their workers leak to you the abuse and it's a downward spiral. They harder they attack the staff (to conceal dissent or embarrassing facts), the more leaking follows.
The only engineering still happening at IBM is financial engineering or accounting fraud. We welcome whistleblowers; as of 2026 we still have a 100% source protection record (since 2006). █