Buy vs Build... where did all those potential compensation/raise $$ go? what were those acquisition ROIs anyways?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mergers_and_acquisitions_by_IBM

yes I know all the big guys acquire (e.g. there was a pre-Google YouTube)

but IBM had a great habit of buying at/past prime..my history goes back to being a IBM sales rep on an account that was one of ROLMs largest prospect opps once acquired... met a lot of ROLMans... didnt close.. IBM was ROLM 's best (last new?) customer

and yes those acquired companies had some sharp people who rarely stayed after the acquisition-obligations (says two years to get vested).. I often joked about the individual I thought was the only remaining Cognos original employee left on IBM payroll

and you can see RH on this list,

July 9, 2019 Red Hat Provider of open source software and solutions USA $34,000,000,000

this entry needs an update for the Krypton-Kindle name.. or whatever it is..

October 8, 2020 - IBM announced it was spinning off the Managed Infrastructure Services unit of its Global Technology Services division into a new public company, an action expected to be completed by the end of 2021.[214]

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IBM has had no vision for the last 15 years. They stopped investing in their people 10 years ago. Reclassified everything they could into "cloud" revenue and took the profit from GTS to fund what ever was their latest gimmick.

The cloud model they sl chased would never support a business the size of IBM. Glad I left sad to see a company run into the ground.

OP here: IBM does not know how to sell "singles" in volume.. total failure of the repeated same-old Channel Strategy (once a strange holy-sounding concept, that gave birth to IBM's Partnerworld).
So smartphone would end up like the PC.. ibm can sell 1000 to one customer, but can't figure how to get one to 1000 customers, or profitably to use alternate channels.
The idea of a NNA metric (New Name Account) is as old, and now foreign, as GSD, or OPD, who did have it.
Those 'top 500' customers, after the latest 2021 sales coverage re-org, will be largely legacy mainframe.. or customers used to ibm kool aid.
Find me an exec, or Fellow, willing to make a cold call on a competitive install... They should all have had NNA metrics of significant size... Too late now I expect

Just like Xerox and Kodak, IBM has a long and proven track record of inventing cool stuff and then utterly failing to be successful at selling it, and/or sitting still while other companies improve the IBM ideas and become very successful.

I assume they meant smart phone, which IBM did invent

The first cell phone was invented by (then) Motorola. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motorola_DynaTAC

Only GINNI and her band of executive id--ts are to blame. They took a once great company and destroyed it. Did you know that IBM invented the first cell phone. It is now a $55b per quarter business for Apple. How could they be sooooo BLIND!!!

It will be very interesting to see who sticks around from Red Hat after July 2021 two years handcuffs expire - by then, everyone will have a good idea if this Spynbull will be Styllborn.

There is a difference this time. IBM is abandoning the legacy IBM strategy, and adopting Redhat’s strategy. This was a pure “we are out of ideas, so what do we do” Everyone should have expected this out of a bunch of financial engineers focused on services instead of Innovation.

Thread regarding IBM layoffs

Buy vs Build... where did all those potential compensation/raise $$ go? what were those acquisition ROIs anyways?

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