IBM's Anderon Another Opportunity for Debt-Loading, Publicity Stunts, Maybe Hidden Layoffs
Earlier this year about 'debt sponge' Kyndryl: IBM Debt-Loading and Liability (Toxic Asset) Offloading
Some hours ago someone gave a plausible explanation of why the corrupt CFO/CEO would rather spin off a new entity than acknowledge they have nothing but unbridled vapourware [1, 2], boosted by fake news that IBM pays to get published. In simple terms and no acronyms:
Real Honest and Blunt Questions about Anderon, the quantum wafer foundry
So the Anderon split from ibm has been announced for October 1st and new announcements and employee contracts are coming out.
Setting aside the painfully obvious point that this is a "quantum wafer foundry" with no real foundry that it owns or controls outright and that the Albany site itself can barely classify as a fully operational fab.
We need to ask ourselves honestly why?
- Why is IBM really splitting off 70-100 people to form this new company?
- Why create Anderon at all in the first place?
- Why not just keep it all internal to IBM?
The publicity stated comments and justification - that this is a way to attract customers who wouldn't work directly with IBM - doesn't hold up. Those same customers know Anderon is strongly affiliated, owned and controlled by IBM, so the same logic of avoid working with IBM would apply to Anderon as well.
Why would a competitor hand over its most sensitive fabrication data to an IBM-affiliated company when IBM is competing against them directly?Flip it around: why would IBM let its competitive-advantage IP flow into Anderon, where it could end up supporting competitors' builds? Anderon is taking a capability that gives IBM an edge and potentially turning it into shared infrastructure. So basically the publicly stated purpose for creating Anderon is a bold face lie.
Is this really just cost savings. Getting 70-100 employees off IBM's books and payroll? As one past comment put it: "it's just a layoff with extra steps."
Call it a spinoff, a joint venture, or a strategic carve out - it still smells exactly like a layoff wearing a lab coat.
This isn't a spinoff, it's a witness protection program for headcount. It’s a glorified layoff from ibm hidden and tucked in in a way ibm doesn’t have to classify it as such
IBM didn't build a competitor. It built an alibi.
Somewhere a strategy consultant got paid seven figures to rename 'layoff' as 'ecosystem expansion.
Bottom line: the publicly stated rationale doesn't add up to a coherent business case.
IBM’s public statements regarding this are just simply ridiculous. Do they actually believe their own words coming out of their mouths. Those saying it should be remembered and held accountable for rest of their careers.
Our leaders are using their usual flimsy internal justifications publicly to explain this. And it appears many who are not indoctrinated in the Albany culture are seeing right through the thin veil and rolling holes into it.
Make it make sense!
We previously wrote about why it is a bailout and accounting trick.
The first comment says: "THIS is why there haven't been any layoffs in '26. This spin-off and the headcount that moves with it ARE the layoffs - at least from a financial perspective. IBM loses the headcount and gets the savings without having to directly payout severance and the US Government bankrolls half of it!"
The latest one says: "A headcount reduction of 70-100 people doesn't move the needle for IBM. This is being done for one purpose - to create more quantum hyper and pump the stock price. The reality is that useful quantum computing is 30+ years away if it EVER even happens."
Anderon does not prove IBM strategy or growth or promise. Anderon shows it's a sleazy firm that cheats and lies like the dictator it wants to subsidise (at taxpayers' expense) something that will never work/materialise in any meaningful way.