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But IBM bought RH only because they believed that the company has growth ahead. If it grows a little more than 1% a year (which should be easy) that will be eno
by coliveira 7y ago
But IBM bought RH only because they believed that the company has growth ahead. If it grows a little more than 1% a year (which should be easy) that will be enough to break even. I think that was a smart move by IBM.
- colinmhayes 7y agoYou are forgetting about the opportunity cost of $34 billion.
- coliveira 7y agoThis is money used to buy large corporations, there are no other ways IBM could easily find a loan to spend $34B.
- aksss 7y agoI remember someone pretty savvy once rhetorically asking why companies are always doing M&A's that seem questionable from ground level. She said because it's more fun to buy things than doing the real work of cleaning up your own company model and performance. There's some sobering truth to that explanation of corporate behavior. The illusion of growth and progress and the thrill of the acquisition can be a good short-term anesthetic. I tend to think IBM is a bit more deliberate than that, however.
- johnvanommen 7y ago> I think that was a smart move by IBM. I wish Microsoft had purchased Red Hat, that would offer real synergy: 1) Microsoft could contribute to Ansible 2) Microsoft would control licensing for RHEL on Azure 3) We might see Outlook and Office running on RHEL. Or even Direct3D?