Jim Whitehurst to step down as IBM President • Hacker News Board

Re: Jim Whitehurst to step down as IBM President

#171

Post by avereveard » Fri, Jul 02, 2021, 7:44 PM UTC

ghaff wrote: post #163

avereveard wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It is worth noting how small the market was at the time though, "In 1983 they sold more than 750,000 machines" - Apple has just passed 100,000,000 iPhone 12s in six months since launch. which is the goddamn point. it was a name in tech circles, and this community forgets how small tech circles were back then heck, someone even cited the cell processor in playstation. outside the nerdiest of gamers, very few actuall…

In 1970, IBM was #5 on the Fortune 500. Now, a young kid might not have heard of them because they never saw the logo on anything or used any of their products. But I'm pretty sure any reasonably well-educated adult [ADDED: or college student/probably teen] would have heard of them just like they would have heard of most of the largest US companies.

which means nothing, jesus, are people not able to follow a thread anymore?

the whole thing was an answer to this:

>>>> I told my teen children "... a company like IBM". To what they said "what is IBM??"

answer wouldn't have changed in the sixties, seventies, nor eighties. mayyybe in the nineties, for the short period laptop became sought after and thinkpad the peak of the form factor.

Re: Jim Whitehurst to step down as IBM President

#172

Post by browningstreet » Fri, Jul 02, 2021, 7:54 PM UTC

lancefisher wrote: post #45

ComputerGuru wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> even at peak IBM it was an office name, not a household name IBM was synonymous with PC for quite some time.

This is true. You had an IBM or an IBM compatible PC running DOS and then Windows. I was well aware of IBM at a young age.

How many times was that phrase used in computer magazines? I kind of forgot about it, this thread has brought me back to the days I would sift through computer magazines at book stores.

Re: Jim Whitehurst to step down as IBM President

#173

Post by ghaff » Fri, Jul 02, 2021, 7:54 PM UTC

avereveard wrote: post #171

ghaff wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In 1970, IBM was #5 on the Fortune 500. Now, a young kid might not have heard of them because they never saw the logo on anything or used any of their products. But I'm pretty sure any reasonably well-educated adult [ADDED: or college student/probably teen] would have heard of them just like they would have heard of most of the largest US companies.

which means nothing, jesus, are people not able to follow a thread anymore? the whole thing was an answer to this: >>>> I told my teen children "... a company like IBM". To what they said "what is IBM??" answer wouldn't have changed in the sixties, seventies, nor eighties. mayyybe in the nineties, for the short period laptop became sought after and thinkpad the peak of the form factor.

Now you're just being rude and I and others are telling you that you're almost certainly wrong. I'm not particularly surprised that a teen today wouldn't have heard of IBM. (It's a large, but one of many, enterprise computing suppliers. I assume they haven't heard of VMware or Oracle either.) I actually would be surprised if a typical child of the Space Age in 1970 wouldn't have heard of it given that IBM pretty much was COMPUTER in the public mind.

I'm pretty sure I would have known most of the largest US companies as a teen, including IBM, because of their cultural ubiquity, not because I had a PC (which didn't exist).

Re: Jim Whitehurst to step down as IBM President

#174

Post by mathattack » Fri, Jul 02, 2021, 7:57 PM UTC

I wasn’t a fan of Red Hat or the acquisition but it seems like they are pretty much turning it into a (small) revenue stream to be optimized rather than something transformational.

Am I the only one who feels like IBM could be circling the drain like when they missed out on PCs?

Re: Jim Whitehurst to step down as IBM President

#175

Post by ghaff » Fri, Jul 02, 2021, 7:59 PM UTC

CardenB wrote: post #167

odiroot wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IBM should definitely have a place there. Netflix is the one that's not like the others.

The acronym refers to pay, not tech. IBM doesn't match the pay of FAANG

It's come to mean that but it was originally about stock--between which there was correlation.

Re: Jim Whitehurst to step down as IBM President

#176

Post by mathattack » Fri, Jul 02, 2021, 7:59 PM UTC

nomoreplease wrote: post #36

When I talk to former IBMers (including a VP), it seems much of the outward “success” there is financial engineering, yet the business is crumbling in reality. Jim leaving amidst a chaotic, failed email migration that is impacting sales is not surprising

They long ago moved from the innovation business to the share buyback business. It’s crazy that a tech company struggles so much to innovate that the best use of their cash is either returning money to shareholders, or buying companies on their behalf.

Re: Jim Whitehurst to step down as IBM President

#177

Post by ternaryoperator » Fri, Jul 02, 2021, 8:00 PM UTC

CardenB wrote: post #167

odiroot wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IBM should definitely have a place there. Netflix is the one that's not like the others.

The acronym refers to pay, not tech. IBM doesn't match the pay of FAANG

Nope. It refers to the stocks of the companies. Nothing to do with pay[0]

[0] https://www.investopedia.com/terms/f/faang-stocks.asp

Re: Jim Whitehurst to step down as IBM President

#178

Post by mathattack » Fri, Jul 02, 2021, 8:02 PM UTC

thedougd wrote: post #92

IBM can recover from this with some stock buybacks. Maybe borrow to get it done.

Only maybe? They’re bleeding cash with the failed split. Of course they will need to!

Re: Jim Whitehurst to step down as IBM President

#179

Post by Bombthecat » Fri, Jul 02, 2021, 8:13 PM UTC

shp0ngle wrote: post #115

BrandoElFollito wrote: post #28

One of my recent revelations was when I told my teen children "... a company like IBM". To what they said "what is IBM??" They know all the large tech companies but that one was a surprise to them, they had a look at Wikipedia and said "ah yes, it was a great company in your times". Time to get some wine.

Even for me as a millennial, IBM is something of a history note. Yes, I know them from computing history lectures, and I liked their ThinkPads (but they sold that to Lenovo when I was in high school). I have only directly interacted with IBM product once, and that was Lotus Notes in one corporation I worked as a tech support in university years. And it was horrible. At university, I thought of IBM as "they do things…

Well, a lot of companies still have old ibm tech they will never ever replace. Or replace them by new ibm tech.

And red hat /openshift is huge in germany. Only startups run on k8s... Especially in insurance and banking.

Re: Jim Whitehurst to step down as IBM President

#180

Post by analognoise » Fri, Jul 02, 2021, 8:27 PM UTC

ghaff wrote: post #143

rst wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The decision was in the hands of a board whose sole legal goal, these days, is securing maximal financial return for shareholders (and the shareholders agreed -- there was an explicit vote). A soul is a luxury that companies don't usually get to keep past IPO.

Sole? No. No matter how many times people repeat it. Or, at least, companies can and do spend money on things that can be argued to be in service of the long-term profit and image of the company. Otherwise, how could a company do charitable giving? That said, if someone makes an offer for a public company, the board does pretty much need to put it to a shareholder vote although they can negotiate for a higher price a…

"Otherwise, how could a company do charitable giving?"

Because it's a tax write-off and makes for good press?