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And which of those is a marketable IBM product that 'normal' people have heard of? Red Hat was an acquisition.

pjmlp 3y ago
The money to acquire Red Hat came from somewhere, which is also beyond many startups accomplishments. Money in the bank doesn't care if it comes from stuff 'normal' people is aware of, or something else. Just like despite all issues, many here won't be aware Bell Labs and UNIX legacy now belong to Nokia. Or how many Linux projects depend on Oracle and Microsoft money, as per contributors on their salaries.
dangus 3y ago
Just because they don't sell consumer products doesn't mean that their products aren't marketable. In the case of research and semiconductor technology, typically IBM isn't out to deliver a finished product, they work with other companies who bring the end result to market. E.g., there's a joint venture between Intel and IBM to advance Intel's fabrication capabilities. When you think of IBM as more of an R&D consulting company or custom enterprise application company it starts to make more sense. To some extent they also have an off-the-shelf product lineup, but most of the reasons to choose them involve custom solutions. Example of a $700 million contract with Disney: https://www.computerworld.com/article/2555832/ibm-signs--730m-it-services-deal-with-disney.html https://www.computerworld.com/article/2555832/ibm-signs--730...
- justinclift 3y ago
  > Example of a $700 million contract with Disney That looks like a fairly straight forward outsourcing / "consulting" contract rather than anything to do with R&D.
  - dangus 3y ago
    I understand that. I’m just pointing out that IBM isn’t some fly by night failure of a company just because they don’t make brand name products that every tech enthusiast and practitioner is using. Their R&D is basically structured like a consulting gig in itself. They help people like Nvidia and Intel deliver on their products. There are some extremely popular tech stacks like Docker and Hashicorp led by companies that are struggling to be profitable. The whole reason those technologies are popular is because they are free or cheap. Then as soon as the company starts to tighten the screws and monetize their user base, the user base crumbles. IBM’s Disney contract is about double the size of Hashicorp’s annual revenue.

The money to acquire Red Hat came from somewhere, which is also beyond many startups accomplishments. Money in the bank doesn't care if it comes from stuff 'normal' people is aware of, or something else. Just like despite all issues, many here won't be aware Bell Labs and UNIX legacy now belong to Nokia. Or how many Linux projects depend on Oracle and Microsoft money, as per contributors on their salaries.

dangus 3y ago

Just because they don't sell consumer products doesn't mean that their products aren't marketable. In the case of research and semiconductor technology, typically IBM isn't out to deliver a finished product, they work with other companies who bring the end result to market. E.g., there's a joint venture between Intel and IBM to advance Intel's fabrication capabilities. When you think of IBM as more of an R&D consulting company or custom enterprise application company it starts to make more sense. To some extent they also have an off-the-shelf product lineup, but most of the reasons to choose them involve custom solutions. Example of a $700 million contract with Disney: https://www.computerworld.com/article/2555832/ibm-signs--730m-it-services-deal-with-disney.html https://www.computerworld.com/article/2555832/ibm-signs--730...

justinclift 3y ago
> Example of a $700 million contract with Disney That looks like a fairly straight forward outsourcing / "consulting" contract rather than anything to do with R&D.
- dangus 3y ago
  I understand that. I’m just pointing out that IBM isn’t some fly by night failure of a company just because they don’t make brand name products that every tech enthusiast and practitioner is using. Their R&D is basically structured like a consulting gig in itself. They help people like Nvidia and Intel deliver on their products. There are some extremely popular tech stacks like Docker and Hashicorp led by companies that are struggling to be profitable. The whole reason those technologies are popular is because they are free or cheap. Then as soon as the company starts to tighten the screws and monetize their user base, the user base crumbles. IBM’s Disney contract is about double the size of Hashicorp’s annual revenue.