Another week, another IBM acquisition. IBM announced that they are purchasing marketing firm Resource/Ammirati to “address surging client demand for the next great customer experience”… how noble of them. While IBM is picking up new companies, rumor has it that they are planning to let go of employees in the GTS space. The job eliminations could be up to 30,000 positions (but there is no way that they will cut that many heads in one year… right?).
EMC/VMWare announced up to 800 staff cuts in the VMWare space while they are attempting to assure banks and investors that the Dell acquisition is on target.
Oracle is doing what Oracle does best… trolling other companies. Oracle released Google’s sensitive financial data to the news which Google is (rightly) quite upset about. Oracle’s attorney said Google should blame themselves. Oh yeah they also finally killed off the Java plug in.
Finally… Xerox is pulling a HP and announced a split/spinoff due to pressure from Carl Icahn.
IBM
- IBM Dishes on Acquisition Plans for Digital Marketing Company
The objective of the move, we’re told, is to combine the companies’ strategic, creative and technology talents to address rising demand from businesses seeking to “reinvent themselves for the digital economy and provide differentiated experiences to their customers.”
http://mobilemarketingwatch.com/ibm-dishes-on-acquisition-plans-for-digital-marketing-company-64986/
More Information on the acquisition:
IBM Plans to Acquire Resource/Ammirati to Address Surging Client Demand for the Next Great Customer ExperienceAs one of the top, digitally-led creative agencies in the US, Columbus, Ohio-based Resource/Ammirati will help IBM build on the success in North America and join over 10,000 IBM iX employees to support demand for its services in this fast-growing market. Resource/Ammirati’s 300+ associates across its offices in Columbus, Chicago and New York will continue to serve a diverse roster of clients spanning consumer goods, retail and financial services companies such as Birchbox, DSW, Nationwide, Nestlé, Newell Rubbermaid, North American Breweries, Shaw Industries, Sherwin Williams, Toys “R”Us and White Castle, among others.
http://www.finchannel.com/index.php/technology/item/53862-ibm-plans-to-acquire-resource-ammirati-to-address-surging-client-demand-for-the-next-great-customer-experience
Comments:
I find this buy very interesting… considering some of the marketing moves Oracle made last week and the fact that Teradata is looking to sell of their marketing platform, this is an area to watch in the next few months. - IBM CEO Rometty Getting $4.5 Million Bonus for 2015
Ms. Rometty’s total earnings for the year won’t be clear until IBM discloses the value of certain equity grants, but her bonus was $900,000 more than the $3.6 million she earned last year. The IBM CEO’s base pay for 2016 remains unchanged at $1.6 million, with $13.3 million in long-term incentive stock awards, the company said Thursday in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
http://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/01/29/ibm-ceo-rometty-getting-4-5m-bonus-for-2015.html
- Axe to fall on staff at IBM’s Global Technology Services ‘this Friday’
Global Technology Services, which builds networking infrastructure and provides high-availability systems among other things, is part of the IT titan’s Global Services division, which employs about 190,000 people worldwide.
Lee Conrad, an ex-IBMer and national coordinator of the Alliance@IBM union, said on Monday that staff had told him that up to 20 per cent of the GTS workforce is at risk. “I have received information that a resource action will happen this Friday,” he told journalists via email.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/01/26/ibm_gts_layoffs/
Additional News:As layoff rumors surface, IBM cuts severance pay allowance
IBM, which has reported a loss in revenue for 15 consecutive quarters, is reportedly gearing up for layoffs this week. The move comes less that a week after Big Blue cut severance pay allowances from as much as six months pay to one month.http://wraltechwire.com/as-layoff-rumors-surface-ibm-cuts-severance-pay-allowance/15278005/
- IBM Refreshes LinuxONE, Expands Platform’s Ecosystem
IBM LinuxONE recently ported the Go programming language, which was developed by Google. Go is designed for building simple, reliable and efficient software, making it easier for developers to combine the software tools they know and love with the speed, security and scale offered by LinuxONE. IBM will begin contributing code to the Go community in the summer.
http://www.eweek.com/cloud/ibm-refreshes-linuxone-expands-platforms-ecosystem.html
- IBM Closes Weather Co. Purchase, Names David Kenny New Head Of Watson Platform
As part of the deal, IBM is making some changes: First, the Weather Company’s cloud platform will now run on IBM’s Cloud data centers (recall that it once was a big client of AWS). That platform will now power all of IBM’s wider push into data services and Watson’s Internet of Things business. This will bring a massively bigger amount of data into the mix, covering what IBM describes as billions of IoT sensors.
http://techcrunch.com/2016/01/29/ibm-watson-weather-company-sale/?ncid=rss
Oracle
- Oracle Corporation (ORCL) to Kill of Java Browser Plugin – Why this is good for everyone
“Oracle plans to deprecate the Java browser plugin in JDK 9,” the Java Platform Group said on their blog. “This technology will be removed from the Oracle JDK and JRE in a future Java SE release.” Oracle does not plan to provide additional browser-specific plugins as such plugins would require application developers to write browser-specific applets for each browser they wish to support. Moreover, without a cross-browser API, Oracle would only be able to offer a subset of the required functionality, different from one browser to the next, impacting both application developers and users.”
- Google Should Blame Itself for Confidential Info Leak: Atty for Oracle Corporation
Oracle’s attorney, Annette Hurst fired back at Google after the search engine giant criticized her for disclosing extremely sensitive information during a court hearing on January 14.
According to Google, Atty. Hurst improperly revealed “extremely sensitive information” from documents that were marked “Attorney’s Eyes Only.” The search engine giant said the “public disclosure could have significant negative effects” on its business.
EMC | Dell
- VMware Cuts 800 Jobs As Merger Doubts Linger
The layoffs were announced Tuesday as VMware released its fourth-quarter earnings. The company expects the cuts to cost between $55 million and $65 million.
While VMware operates as a separate, independent company from EMC, its stock has dropped more than 40% since the Dell takeover was announced late last year. EMC has itself launched layoffs that will cost about $250 million.
http://ww2.cfo.com/the-cloud/2016/01/vmware-cuts-800-jobs-merger-doubts-linger/
- EMC has a shoddy year
“I was disappointed that we fell a bit short on revenue, which was $7.01 billion essentially flat year-on-year,” Tucci said. “However, I would like to point out that it follows 24 consecutive quarters of reported year-on-year top line growth. An accomplishment that very few our technology peers matched.”
http://www.microscope.co.uk/news/4500272044/EMC-has-a-shoddy-year
- EMC slams concerns Dell cannot raise takeover cash
Tucci: “We have a binding solid merger agreement in place. We are highly confident of the contractual terms we have in place [and] that we will meet those contractual terms. There are significant penalties in place both ways if this doesn’t happen. The banks are fully committed and, again, what does that mean? It means that the banks have told us they can raise the money.”
http://www.channelweb.co.uk/crn-uk/news/2443771/emc-slams-concerns-dell-cannot-raise-takeover-cash
Other
- Xerox Planning Spinoff, Under Pressure From Carl Icahn
A large part of the spinoff will incorporate Affiliated Computer Services, the business outsourcing company that Xerox bought for $6.4 billion in 2010, said the person, who spoke on the condition of anonymity before the plan was announced.
The remaining company would be focused on office supply products like copiers, scanners and fax machines, the person said.
- Western Digital acquires over 100 IBM patents
The patents acquired by Western Digital were in distributed storage, object storage, and emerging non-volatile memory. The parties did not disclose how much the deal was worth.
http://www.interaksyon.com/infotech/western-digital-acquires-over-100-ibm-patents