So the analysts briefing (available on the stock holders relation page) was interesting. IBM has rearranged the 4 divisions to cater to Cloud. Cognitive expands, GBS stays approx the same with some slight modification, GTS downsizes, and Systems stays approx the same. The CFO did expand on that, and I would net it out as follows IBM is happy with Cognitive, and GBS. They are growing and have expanded their margins. GTS continues to disappoint and IBM will continue to downsize the less profitable portions of it. ONE major note here was IBM will not dump the mainframe component of GTS (no matter where it resides or what it does), but will de-emphasize OEM content/contracts, etc etc. My speculation is that IBM is not done here, and will exit approx 35-40% of the GTS business over time. Think about it this way. If you deal in OEM GTS contracts, you most likely will get spun off. The CFO was quizzed on this by several analysts and danced around the answer, but you could certainly by the end of the hour see GTS is in for more restructuring. Systems was thrown to the “nature” of the business cycle, and they expect 1-2 more tough quarters. The CFO did specifically mention his disappointment in storage (everything except flash) and said they are addressing it. One last systems mention was Power. While growth was acceptable (high end systems and low end LINUX systems), the mid-range Power HW disappointed
Excellent write-up by @YBPkgsd-1mch, made into a thread so more people could see it.