The measures being taken by one of the oldest and largest teach giants of the world - International Business Machines Corp or IBM as is better known, to redefine and rejuvenate itself and find new ways of doing business will now see its long standing Chief Executive Officer Ginni Rometty to be handing over the reign of the company to the heads of a relatively new business unit of the company – its cloud business.
With the development of internet, it s speed and penetration and the capacity of servers, the business segment of cloud computing also emerged and developed very fast. IBM in fact was a little late to enter the business of cloud services which has been dominated by other tech companies such as Amazon.com Inc and Microsoft Corp. And while Rometty, an IBM veteran for 40 years was at the helm, she had tried to reduce the lead in the sector by acquisitions. Rometty is one of the highest profile women in United States business world.
While she headed the company as the Chief Executive Officer, there were 65 acquisitions that were completed by the Big Blue. That included one of its biggest deals in the sector – the $34 billion deal for Red Hat last year. That deal was the biggest ever for IBM in its 108-year history. On the other hand, IBM also attempted to streamline its portfolio as it divested some of its legacy businesses.
The exit of Rometty has also been on a high note with the company recently reporting its first growth in revenues in six quarters. However about 25 per cent of the share value of the company has been wiped off since she took over the company as the chief executive. The turnaround strategy for the company is still an ongoing process.
The new CEO Arvind Krishna, 57, is scheduled to take over in April. He was at the forefront of the Red Hat deal.
Tim Hubbard, assistant professor at the University of Notre Dame and a former IBM consultant said that it is likely that the same acquisition strategy would be carried out by IBM under the leadership of Krishna but analysts predict that the acquisitions and mergers in the cloud and analytics space will be smaller in terms of value.
The news of the change saw the company shares rise by almost 5 per cent.
Red Hat CEO James Whitehurst will become its president, IBM also said.
The 62 year old Rometty will continue to serve as the executive chairman of the company till she retires at the end of the year. "Arvind is the right CEO for the next era at IBM," Rometty said in a statement.
(Source:www.businesstoday.in)
With the development of internet, it s speed and penetration and the capacity of servers, the business segment of cloud computing also emerged and developed very fast. IBM in fact was a little late to enter the business of cloud services which has been dominated by other tech companies such as Amazon.com Inc and Microsoft Corp. And while Rometty, an IBM veteran for 40 years was at the helm, she had tried to reduce the lead in the sector by acquisitions. Rometty is one of the highest profile women in United States business world.
While she headed the company as the Chief Executive Officer, there were 65 acquisitions that were completed by the Big Blue. That included one of its biggest deals in the sector – the $34 billion deal for Red Hat last year. That deal was the biggest ever for IBM in its 108-year history. On the other hand, IBM also attempted to streamline its portfolio as it divested some of its legacy businesses.
The exit of Rometty has also been on a high note with the company recently reporting its first growth in revenues in six quarters. However about 25 per cent of the share value of the company has been wiped off since she took over the company as the chief executive. The turnaround strategy for the company is still an ongoing process.
The new CEO Arvind Krishna, 57, is scheduled to take over in April. He was at the forefront of the Red Hat deal.
Tim Hubbard, assistant professor at the University of Notre Dame and a former IBM consultant said that it is likely that the same acquisition strategy would be carried out by IBM under the leadership of Krishna but analysts predict that the acquisitions and mergers in the cloud and analytics space will be smaller in terms of value.
The news of the change saw the company shares rise by almost 5 per cent.
Red Hat CEO James Whitehurst will become its president, IBM also said.
The 62 year old Rometty will continue to serve as the executive chairman of the company till she retires at the end of the year. "Arvind is the right CEO for the next era at IBM," Rometty said in a statement.
(Source:www.businesstoday.in)