Cynical PR job by school board

This behaviour from the school board is a desparate and disgusting attempt to shame one of their debtors into letting them out of their obligations. i.e. "look at the big company bullying the terribly poor school board, isn't that awful". Well, no, instead it just emphasises the poor management and business skills of the public sector.

I wonder if they had been threatening to do this, but IBM have stood their ground so they have now carried out the promise to go public. This could damage their reputation, but its not as if IBM are flogging home computers any more and the consumer will be driven away by this news. More likely some government/public sector buyers could be annoyed and have their prejudice over professional IT consultancy companies strengthened.

What annoys me is that they will probably still get some benefit from this - i.e. IBM will compromise and reduce the debt, or otherwise throw them some free equipment (though at least that might be tax deductible).