@AC --- IBM Resource Action
TPM --- an estimated 10,000 layoffs in 2009 and some 30,000 over the past four years
AC --- IBM needs to move resources. A resource action is when one part of a business has too many headcount. There are tons of jobs at IBM and sometimes people need a little push to move to another in demand part of the business. It is also a lot easier to layoff very low performing people than try to fire them.
30,000 over the past 4 years is a little high for very low performing people. Moving 10,000 people around to different jobs, in a single year, seems strange.
If a company with as many people as IBM are moving between job 30,000 people or sacking 30,000 low performers, they are really screwed up.
This is a very unrealistic view of IBM and the current global economy.
AC --- Get ready for the 15% price increase on SPARC systems
It would still be A LOT less expensive, per aggregate system performance metric, than the IBM Power hardware, since they have to re-train all those under-performers you are talking about!
Cranking up the prices on one product line of an existing systems is an unrealistic view of Oracle/Sun.
AC --- I am glad I don't work for Mr Lawrence Ellison
Petty partisanship is a losing proposition in technology. IBM, Oracle, (and former Sun) were all all excellent companies - a realistic view of each of them is well understood by anyone who is employed in the industry.