What We Said About Red Hat's Fate Under IBM Turned Out to be Right on the Money (That IBM Lacks)
Last month: Will Red Hat Still Exist in 2027 or Just Become a "Brand" at IBM? | IBM is Not Done Destroying Red Hat, Wait Till October 1st 2026 (More Layoffs and Bluewashing)
More than half a decade ago, not too long after IBM had bought Red Hat, a former editor of a large Linux magazine warned us that based on his experience, which impacted his employer, 1.5-2 years after IBM buys a company it'll begin to destroy it (that timespan was based on observation of many such acquisitions). This person has since then vanished into obscurity; he also stopped blogging.
With Red Hat, the above prediction turned out to be true and still turning out this way:
In the case of Confluent (IBM just bought the clients; it swapped debt for revenue), mass layoffs were instant but silent (the media didn't cover almost 1,000 layoffs).
Now we see IBM bringing back the euphemism "next step", which basically means "mass kill" (or something bad like that). This was last year. Notice the scale:
IBM is collapsing while trying to convince the workers to help pretend it's a voluntary thing and leaving is something they're happy to do (the happiness is a contractual obligation!).
"I have started sending my resumes to other companies. It is unbearable," somebody said this morning, "I have been waiting for layoffs but they are not coming, so I decided to leave on my own terms. Wish me luck ;-)"
Waiting for layoffs?
There are no layoffs at IBM.
They are called "RAs" ("resource actions"), they're done by "PIPs" (blaming the victims, accusing them of "low performance" or "underperforming"), and now it's "next step". IBM convinces people to walk the plank (to avoid a worse "deal" later). █