IBM as fucked company

Well , f*cked as in machiavellian, layoffs or as in the end of a redundant business model, yes. But prior to the layoffs news, we'd all just heard about some new, big tech advances like the DB2 (database) system:

From PC World

in the new update of DB2, released Friday, IBM has added a set of acceleration technologies, collectively code-named BLU, that promise to make the venerable database management system (DBMS) better suited for running large in-memory data analysis jobs.

Because of BLU, DB2 10.5 could speed data analysis by 25 times or more, IBM claimed. This improvement could eliminate the need to purchase a separate in-memory database -- such as Oracle's TimesTen -- for speedy data analysis and transaction processing jobs. "We're not forcing you from a cost model perspective to size your database so everything fits in memory," Vincent said.

On the Web, IBM provided an example of how 32-core system using BLU technologies could execute a query against a 10TB data set in less than a second.

If you're not an IBM employee you may view their example at https://www-304.ibm.com/connections/blogs/datawarehousing/entry/db2_with_blu_acceleration_in_action4?lang=en_us

From Value Walk:

even though IBM is trading at an all-time high price, its current valuation is historically low because earnings (the orange line) have actually grown faster than the stock price.

Whether this BLU technology with be the new jewel in IBM's crown - or whether they have other technologies up their sleeve - we don't know. I dare say their execs will be saying to their shareholders that they're "trimming dead wood," making a leaner, meaner IBM - yet with still plenty of cash.