Thread regarding IBM layoffs

about attrition ... in line with our competitors ... not going to spend any time looking into it until they diverge significantly

Typical IBM leadership - always being reactive not proactive and then wondering why the competition is always ahead

When asked about attrition and stemming the tide A basically said:

• - Those numbers sound alarming BUT
• - Those numbers are in line with our competitors
• - So we're not going to spend any time looking into it until they diverge significantly

Add in my boss said:

• - I got a lot more than before (which gave one person a cola and zero otherwise)
• - but not what I still wanted
• - So it will STILL take 4-5 years to catch you all up to where you should be (even with IBM's biased view of competitive salary)

Of course not understanding:

• - Leaving IBM for competitive and catch up pay (our team is 6 years not even COLA)
• - Competitors - Leaving for WFH or WFWherever - and particular skills paying more
• - Competitors ARE paying more for needed skills going forward and IBM retreating

Now before anybody berates me for staying -

• - I'm 2 years from my targeted early retirement (and still making valuable contributions - not slacking off) with 5 weeks vacation.
• - I'm consciously choosing to stay vs firehose a new job even for an easy huge raise
• - I'm working closely with my retirement planning to be prepared for early forced retirement if that happens.
• - So I have and am working a plan. But:
• - I do NOT understand my colleagues STILL choosing to stay - must be part of the "been here 20 years (yes, most) know nothing else nor about any other green pasture".

Summary: Very disappointing with Arvind's dismissal but sums up IBM on any understanding of competitiveness vs attention to high level stat rollups losing the meaning.

Non-GAAP should be interpreted as "Generally Unacceptable Accounting Principles" so whenever I hear "Non-GAAP" it sets off alarm bells. Most other companies use Non-GAAP only where there are extraordinary one-time charges - a very rare event, but IBM always finds these extraordinary (50% difference!) expenses every single quarter - excuses, excuses, blame, blame.

Good investors look at companies that only report GAAP. Non-GAAP is simply unacceptable.

There is yet another UGLY piece of IBM’s reporting. Under infrastructure “hybrid cloud revenue” fell by 18%. Hard to be a cloud company if your revenue is going double digit in the wrong direction. Perhaps Z being down by 18% mirrors the Hybrid cloud revenue, or perhaps IBM’s adventure into cloud is a phantom and scale out Power and storage is dragging it down. Either way IBM hybrid cloud within Infrastructure is shrinking which is not good

Been around long enough to know one thing for sure, if IBM is reporting things are pretty good , they are about to get real bad for all of us.

So IBM had a pretty good 1st q. IBM beat both top line and bottom line. IBM also expanded their outlook to “high single digit” growth vs “Mid” That’s quite an optimistic outlook. ALSO IBM announced they will use the 1+ billion sale of Watson Heath to reduce “stranded” costs (Can you say restructuring most likely in SW)

• The stock has outperformed the S&P 500 so far this year.
• Beat consensus on the top and bottom lines.
• The technology services company offloaded Watson health-care assets

Ah, not so fast! That's only true when you look at IBM's fudged "Non-GAAP" number. The REAL EPS is half that amount!

This was what Barron's reported: "Non-GAAP profits for IBM were $1.40 a share, a penny ahead of Street expectations. Under generally accepted accounting practices, IBM earned 73 cents a share."

1. 40 Told ya Now onto the spin-offs

Today we found out

Are you telling us you can see into the future?

So who is using Red Hat besides internal IBM?
$34b spent on what appears to be a giant nothing burger.

IBM should beat the 1.34 They should get closer to 1.40 (GBS is booming and SW has grown due to acquitions. Infrastructure will shrink due to Z15) You are correct that IBM should outline the 2nd portion of their restructuring. Expect IBM to aim for the non-essential pieces of the 3 divisions to be spun-off. NOTE that doesn’t mean layoffs, but rather exiting businesses that don’t align with consulting, hybrid cloud, or Redhat/openshift/AI

Not that they need an excuse to lay people off, but still...