Hesh Wiener
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Mad Dog 21/21: Groundhog Days
February 23, 2015 Hesh Wiener
… Read moreOn February 2 each year, in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, a groundhog predicts the duration of winter. If the woodchuck, awakened by handlers, sees its shadow, winter will last six more weeks. But if the animal casts no shadow, winter will soon give way to spring. Shortly before February 2, after three years of financial winter, IBM’s executive handlers elevated CEO Ginny Rometty’s remuneration by $3.6 million, calling the boost a performance bonus. I wonder what aspect of Rometty’s performance was so amply rewarded. IBM reported dismal quarterly results ending yet another year of financial decline.
Notwithstanding the apparent optimism of IBM’s
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Mad Dog 21/21: Nerves Of Steel
January 12, 2015 Hesh Wiener
… Read moreAs 2014 drew to a close, the Wall Street Journal, which undoubtedly can recognize an outfit in decline, said IBM shares would be the year’s worst performing component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. IBM was the biggest loser of the DJIA in 2013, too. The last company to do so poorly was Bethlehem Steel in 1995 and 1996; it was kicked off the DJIA in 1997. In 2001, Bethlehem went bankrupt, and two years after that it was dismembered. If IBM doesn’t change quickly and dramatically, it is a goner.
Goodwill impairment may be the ruin of IBM.
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Mad Dog 21/21: It’s The Apps, Stupid
December 8, 2014 Hesh Wiener
… Read moreIBM and Apple are best friends these days. They are working together to get businesses to provide their employees with iPads and iPhones along with IBM tablet applications and cloud services. IBM is going to do the marketing, including the sale or leasing of mobile devices to its end users. Support will be more complicated. Apple will serve as the primary outside support provider through its remote-only AppleCare service; IBM will be the onsite support provider. It isn’t clear what role will be played by the teams that currently support users’ computers, which usually run Windows.
There is little
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Mad Dog 21/21: Two Calves And Calves Not
December 1, 2014 Hesh Wiener
… Read moreIn Semitic mythology, Jews at the foot of Mount Sinai embraced an invisible God rather than one represented by a golden statue of a calf. From that pivotal moment, the followers of Moses and eventually the other people of the book, Christians and Muslims, vested their faith in software rather than hardware. A couple dozen centuries later, the resultant monotheistic civilization controls the bulk of the word’s wealth and power. This year, one of that civilization’s great industrial institutions, IBM, shifted the burden of its strategic trust from physical hardware to intangible software and cloud computing.
For many
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Mad Dog 21/21: Pandora’s Pithos
November 10, 2014 Hesh Wiener
… Read moreA lot of things are going wrong at IBM. Frustrated investors, disgruntled employees, and anxious customers are trying to figure out why. They share the absurd belief that proper understanding could mitigate Big Blue’s malaise. For an individual, knowledge might cure pain caused by ill-fitting shoes; but not the agony of terminal cancer. For a vast organization like IBM, myriad woes are a concomitant of existence. Why? The myth of Pandora provides an explanation. Tricked by Zeus and trapped by her nature, Pandora unsealed a container and unintentionally beset mankind with perpetual afflictions. IBM can prevail, but not without struggle.
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Mad Dog 21/21: Power Cuts
October 27, 2014 Hesh Wiener
… Read moreIt’s not difficult to underestimate Donald Trump and forget he earned a degree in economics at the vaunted Wharton School. His cuckoo coiffure amplifies the impression he makes on boosters and blasters alike. Follicular folly similarly misdirects observers of Boris Johnson, London’s mayor. Soon, however, Johnson might get serious about standing for Prime Minister, in which case his unthatcherish thatch could befriend a brush. Ginni Rometty‘s hairdo, by contrast, alludes to Duplessis’ Franklin; it proclaims grit and gravitas, as befits an executive Fortune dubs the most powerful woman in the business world.
Of these three notables,
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Mad Dog 21/21: Borrowed Time
October 13, 2014 Hesh Wiener
… Read moreIBM owes a lot of money. At midyear, it told its shareholders that it was carrying $34 billion in long-term debt and another $12.5 billion in short-term debt, for a total of $46.5 billion. That is about 2.7 times IBM’s shareholder equity of $17.4 billion. IBM’s bondholders and banks are confident Big Blue is good for the money, credit rating agencies and Wall Street analysts are generally pleased. But for customers depending on IBM, its financial priorities may be a worry. Bean-counters may tug IBM one way while bit-bashers pull it another.
IBM isn’t alone in its use of large
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Mad Dog 21/21: Two-Minute Warning
September 29, 2014 Hesh Wiener
… Read moreIn the Super Bowl, the warning two minutes before the end of the first half tells the halftime entertainers to prepare for a big cash outlay. The second reminds players they can soon resume personal pursuits, such as domestic violence. IBM’s financial year has warnings, too. In the first quarter IBM warned it was relinquishing its chip factories. By the second it seemed the taker would be Global Foundries. During the third it emerged GloFo wanted IBM to pay a big disposal fee. The fourth will be a nail-biter; vexatious but better than a wife-beater.
Katy Perry:
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Mad Dog 21/21: Crimea River
September 15, 2014 Hesh Wiener
… Read moreGenerally speaking, war is a male pursuit. Women warriors, Amazons, are an exception. Generally speaking, public company capitalism is about profit, with emphasis on near term earnings. Amazon.com, taking the long view while favoring revenue, is an exception. The Amazon women’s tribe mythology is huge, and it is consistent with the findings of archeologists; they say that dramatically matriarchal societies are threads in the fabric of European civilization. Amazon.com exhibits unusual behavior, too; it succeeds far beyond the expectations of skeptics, confounding and punishing gainsayers who put bearish money where their grousing pie-holes lie.
Amazon: Ancient Greeks spun fabulous myths
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Mad Dog 21/21: On Whom IBM Now Depends
August 18, 2014 Hesh Wiener
… Read moreIBM‘s success depends on its services business, notably cloud services. IBM’s cloud services operations depend on SoftLayer, a hosting company it bought about a year ago. SoftLayer depends on servers from Super Micro Computer, a 20-year-old $1.2 billion-a-year manufacturer based in San Jose, California. During the past year, Supermicro has grown by something like 25 percent. In its third fiscal quarter ended March 31, Supermicro reported significantly increased earnings. IBM is undoubtedly pleased by this. If Supermicro stumbles, SoftLayer will wobble. That, in turn, would send tremors throughout IBM.
It might seem a bit odd for IBM