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In July 1993, the company laid off approximately 60,000 workers, because its mainframe business at the time was shrinking and the PC industry it created in 1981 was dominated by Intel x86 clones from companies like Compaq, Dell, and many, many white boxers.
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IBM knows how to pivotĭuring the 1990s, IBM faced an existential crisis similar to the one it is facing now. And I have watched it mature and evolve and face paradigm shifts that have caused many of its competitors to go extinct. So, I have a very soft spot for Big Blue. Twenty-somethings and perhaps even 30-somethings may not understand this today, but there was a time when the letters "IBM" were synonymous with computers. Going to work at IBM was a childhood dream. Sure, I had been in independent consulting for quite a few years, and I had also spent some time at Unisys, but it was learning IBM's consultative methodology at Global Technology Services and working on some very large datacenter consolidations and business continuity engagements that turned me into a systems architect-type. Soft spot for Big BlueĪt IBM, I truly learned to become a trusted advisor. Microsoft certainly rubbed off on me, and it was an experience I will never forget, but it was at IBM that I fully accepted and embraced my profession.
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There is a certain conditioning that occurs when one spends any length of time at some companies. I tell a lot of people that, although I have been out of the company almost seven years, had a five-year stint at Microsoft, and have since moved on to other things, I still identify myself as an ex-IBMer. The 17 worst tech mergers and acquisitionsĪ corporate merger, like a marriage, can yield a whole stronger than its parts - or it can end in utter disaster.
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