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I didn't know IBM still had money to throw around like that. What do they even do these days? Who are their customers?

onlyrealcuzzo 3y ago
IBM had ~$14B cash to start the year. Additionally, you don't need the full purchase price in cash to buy the company. You can do leveraged buyouts, etc.
- czbond 3y ago
  IBM M&A person: "We'd like to buy you in all IBM stock! <jazz hands>" Hopefully someone at HashiCorp: "Hell no, cash please"
  - Disp4tch 3y ago
    IBM stock is basically cash. Limited growth potential, very stable, fat dividend.
  - mywittyname 3y ago
    Press release says it's all cash at $35/sh using cash-on-hand for the purchase.
  - cqqxo4zV46cp 3y ago
    Ugh, and have you actually looked at IBM’e share price? Or is it this because IBM isn’t cool to you? A bit rich for a community that’ll go work for shares in some dinky web app startup.
    - deleted 3y ago
      [deleted]
    - czbond 3y ago
      Yes I did, it was overextended by about 30 points yesterday
playingalong 3y ago
Just guessing - large corporate bespoke software / integrations projects?
belter 3y ago
This type of comment appears here every time the name IBM shows up, but it is more symptomatic, of the bubble a part of HN lives on. Think every core IT infra of most of the developed world countries, most of the ebanking and core messaging infra of your large banks and insurance companies, plus billions per year in consulting services revenue. https://www.ibm.com/products https://www.ibm.com/products https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_IBM_products https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_IBM_products
- bluGill 3y ago
  It is more than IBM used to be a big name in areas where hackers would be expected to be. They have left all those behind though. there are lots of other companies that none of us would recognize that are big, but IBM is a name that we all know as once somewhat important who now are not.
  - cqqxo4zV46cp 3y ago
    Uhm, the term “hacker” in this context, is, itself, just a coded way of saying “cool developer in the same circles as me”. Again, HN users are in a bubble, and HN users think that they’re very trendy.
    - bluGill 3y ago
      Right. If you are in the HN bubble, then 30 years ago IBM was a big name in computing as the inventor of the PC, OS/2, maker of a great keyboard, and a bunch of weird systems we never touched. They sold their PC and keyboard businesses, and let OS/2 die. We think some of those weird systems still exist, but those never were very relevant unless you had to work on them. HN users are trendy. If you didn't grow up in the 1990s or before though you may not remember just how picked on this type of crowd was. Now while we are never exactly the "in" crowd, we are respected, being a "nerd" or "geek" is now an acceptable thing. We have come a long way and that is enough trendy enough for us.
- Waterluvian 3y ago
  Yep. My dad sold IBM server software for most of his career. His customers were banks, railways, and governments.
timr 3y ago
They did $14.5 billion dollars in revenue in Q1, with a 54% gross margin, split across software, consulting and infrastructure: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/ibm-releases-first-quarter-results-200800999.html https://finance.yahoo.com/news/ibm-releases-first-quarter-re...
lolinder 3y ago
They bought Red Hat in 2019 for $34B, which means their customers are at a minimum every RHEL customer. https://www.redhat.com/en/about/press-releases/ibm-closes-landmark-acquisition-red-hat-34-billion-defines-open-hybrid-cloud-future https://www.redhat.com/en/about/press-releases/ibm-closes-la...
arp242 3y ago
IBM did ~$62 billion in revenue last year, with a ~$7.5 billion net income. They employ ~280,000 people. I think they can find a few billions lying around, without having to turn the sofa cushions.
listenallyall 3y ago
Other than a period around 2012-13, IBM's market cap is higher than it's ever been.
op00to 3y ago
IBM is essentially a large bank with a side business of tech. IBM is known for financially complex deals that are highly lucrative. They make their money by taking advantage of inefficiencies in the largest enterprises purchasing and technology teams.
frognumber 3y ago
As far as I can tell, the vast majority of the universe is completely incompetent with IT, but needs a lot of boring things done. If you're a shipyard, an oil company, a bank, an automaker, etc. you still need software to manage things like inventory, employees, logistics, and similar, and you have zero expertise to do it in-house. They also have zero expertise to find a qualified vendor. IBM is a safe bet. That's a huge market.

IBM had ~$14B cash to start the year. Additionally, you don't need the full purchase price in cash to buy the company. You can do leveraged buyouts, etc.

czbond 3y ago
IBM M&A person: "We'd like to buy you in all IBM stock! <jazz hands>" Hopefully someone at HashiCorp: "Hell no, cash please"
- Disp4tch 3y ago
  IBM stock is basically cash. Limited growth potential, very stable, fat dividend.
- mywittyname 3y ago
  Press release says it's all cash at $35/sh using cash-on-hand for the purchase.
- cqqxo4zV46cp 3y ago
  Ugh, and have you actually looked at IBM’e share price? Or is it this because IBM isn’t cool to you? A bit rich for a community that’ll go work for shares in some dinky web app startup.
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
  - czbond 3y ago
    Yes I did, it was overextended by about 30 points yesterday

playingalong 3y ago

Just guessing - large corporate bespoke software / integrations projects?

belter 3y ago

This type of comment appears here every time the name IBM shows up, but it is more symptomatic, of the bubble a part of HN lives on. Think every core IT infra of most of the developed world countries, most of the ebanking and core messaging infra of your large banks and insurance companies, plus billions per year in consulting services revenue. https://www.ibm.com/products https://www.ibm.com/products https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_IBM_products https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_IBM_products

bluGill 3y ago
It is more than IBM used to be a big name in areas where hackers would be expected to be. They have left all those behind though. there are lots of other companies that none of us would recognize that are big, but IBM is a name that we all know as once somewhat important who now are not.
- cqqxo4zV46cp 3y ago
  Uhm, the term “hacker” in this context, is, itself, just a coded way of saying “cool developer in the same circles as me”. Again, HN users are in a bubble, and HN users think that they’re very trendy.
  - bluGill 3y ago
    Right. If you are in the HN bubble, then 30 years ago IBM was a big name in computing as the inventor of the PC, OS/2, maker of a great keyboard, and a bunch of weird systems we never touched. They sold their PC and keyboard businesses, and let OS/2 die. We think some of those weird systems still exist, but those never were very relevant unless you had to work on them. HN users are trendy. If you didn't grow up in the 1990s or before though you may not remember just how picked on this type of crowd was. Now while we are never exactly the "in" crowd, we are respected, being a "nerd" or "geek" is now an acceptable thing. We have come a long way and that is enough trendy enough for us.
Waterluvian 3y ago
Yep. My dad sold IBM server software for most of his career. His customers were banks, railways, and governments.

timr 3y ago

They did $14.5 billion dollars in revenue in Q1, with a 54% gross margin, split across software, consulting and infrastructure: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/ibm-releases-first-quarter-results-200800999.html https://finance.yahoo.com/news/ibm-releases-first-quarter-re...

lolinder 3y ago

They bought Red Hat in 2019 for $34B, which means their customers are at a minimum every RHEL customer. https://www.redhat.com/en/about/press-releases/ibm-closes-landmark-acquisition-red-hat-34-billion-defines-open-hybrid-cloud-future https://www.redhat.com/en/about/press-releases/ibm-closes-la...

arp242 3y ago

IBM did ~$62 billion in revenue last year, with a ~$7.5 billion net income. They employ ~280,000 people. I think they can find a few billions lying around, without having to turn the sofa cushions.

listenallyall 3y ago

Other than a period around 2012-13, IBM's market cap is higher than it's ever been.

op00to 3y ago

IBM is essentially a large bank with a side business of tech. IBM is known for financially complex deals that are highly lucrative. They make their money by taking advantage of inefficiencies in the largest enterprises purchasing and technology teams.

frognumber 3y ago

As far as I can tell, the vast majority of the universe is completely incompetent with IT, but needs a lot of boring things done. If you're a shipyard, an oil company, a bank, an automaker, etc. you still need software to manage things like inventory, employees, logistics, and similar, and you have zero expertise to do it in-house. They also have zero expertise to find a qualified vendor. IBM is a safe bet. That's a huge market.