IBM India is now the off shore part of IBM services. It will soon be spun off or sold off for stock.
Think the old CFO of IBM has his eyes on the new companies CEO position??? IBM is currently in the process of finalizing the right sizing of “high cost” labor countries. (think europe, USA, OZ). This should be finished by year end 2018. Once IBM is right sized, then the merger speculation will begin.
Again it’s Ginni’s all in bet to extract share holder value out of what remains of IBM. Cloud, AI, and research (think patents) are the way forward for IBM, but only as a skinny company.
Figure out who needs Cloud, Ai, and Patents, and you will have guessed the merger partner. Have you noted there are no CEO replacements in the wings to replace Ginni.
Speculation is IBM will exist as a division of the acquiring company. No need for a new CEO.