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𝐈𝐁𝐌 𝐂𝐄𝐎 𝐀𝐫𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐝 𝐊𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐡𝐧𝐚: Proof That at IBM People Fall Upwards

Posted by Roy Schestowitz on Dec 15, 2025

"IBM’s reported move toward an $11B acquisition of Confluent is not a bold AI strategy—it’s a familiar, expensive reflex. Under Arvind Krishna, IBM has increasingly relied on checkbook innovation to compensate for years of internal stagnation, declining developer mindshare, and a chronic inability to organically compete with hyperscalers.

"This deal follows the same tired script as Red Hat, Apptio, Turbonomic, Instana, and HashiCorp: overpay for a respected but niche infrastructure asset, promise “synergies,” then quietly bury it inside IBM’s bureaucracy where momentum slows and talent exits. IBM doesn’t scale products anymore—it absorbs them until they lose velocity." -4 minutes ago by Anonymous

IBM is crumbling.

IBM is crumbling very rapidly.

In recent months, for instance, IBM has fired more people than it's willing to publicly admit. Those layoffs ("RAs" as IBM calls them) are international in scope. They also impact Red Hat staff.

To restrict or prevent criticism IBM uses NDAs or similarly-worded threats (it tries to still exercise control, even over people that it laid off).

Thankfully, however, it cannot tackle anonymous dissent. IBM is collapsing.

Why is the CEO ("AK") still in charge and how much more money will he waste before he inevitably gets the boot?

The problem here is, at least from our perspective, via Red Hat (what used to be known as that, prior to the bluewashing) IBM exercises way too much control over the direction of GNU/Linux. Nothing indicates that IBM's CEO even knows what it is or has ever used it!

To "AK", Red Hat was another "portfolio item" to throw inside the bag. Look what has happened to Red Hat since he took over it (that was his idea). █