A Prediction: IBM and Microsoft
Roughly equal companies in terms of market cap — $220B — but with IBM’s enterprise value about $50B, I am predicting a merger of IBM and Microsoft with IBM leading the merged company, Ballmer retiring, and Microsoft being run — at least for a while — as a branded line of business in the twice as large, new IBM.
The fit of Microsoft’s enterprise solutions — Office, Exchange, Sharepoint, database, programming tools — with IBM’s corporate offerings is great. Also, IBM is the perfect partner to capitalize on the (eventual) migration away from Windows as a PC and server O/S.
As part of the deal, IBM would spin out various parts:
- The gaming side — Kinect, Xbox — would be spun out as a standalone.
- Phone software — spun out or sold off. Merged with Nokia?
- Bing — a money-losing proposition, might be sold off.
We’ll see, but I think $25-50B could be saved in a merger, with all of that going to the bottom line for investors.
16 notes
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what-is-the-best-nikon-camera reblogged this from stoweboyd
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decoteau254 liked this
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1en liked this
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legaltwo reblogged this from stoweboyd
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adrianmelrose reblogged this from stoweboyd and added:
A bold prediction
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queuea liked this
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ascratchpad reblogged this from stoweboyd
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digitalspark said:
Probably too logical and emotional to happen in my opinion … but a good fit in alot of ways.
Think Microsoft, though, has way more potential, even though we haven’t seen much in last decade.
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mehalchin reblogged this from stoweboyd and added:
Interesting thoughts...work, but neither side NEEDS this deal, so unlikely
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stoweboyd posted this
