IBM wants to focus on the promising “cloud” and artificial intelligence market.
One hundred and nine years after its birth, in 1911, the American IT giant decided to split up and combine its infrastructure management activities in a separate company, which will also be listed.
This new company, which does not yet have a name, will bring together the hosting activities and the management of services and infrastructures.
“
Our customers' needs for infrastructure services are diverging as the adoption of our hybrid cloud platform accelerates,
” said Arvind Krishna, Managing Director of IBM, who took charge of the group in April.
According to IBM, the Cloud represents a potential market of 1000 billion dollars.
“Now
is the right time to create two leading companies focused on what they do best,
” added the leader.
The split is expected to close by the end of 2021 as a non-taxable shareholder transaction.
IT infrastructure services provide support to 4,600 customers in 115 countries and claim a $ 60 billion backlog.
The new company will have 90,000 employees and its management structure will be decided in a few months.
IBM currently has 352,000 employees worldwide.
According to its chief financial officer, James Kavanaugh, expenses related to the separation and operational changes could reach nearly $ 5 billion.
The news was well received on Wall Street.
The stock jumped more than 7% in early trade.
IBM also released preliminary results for its third quarter on Thursday.
The company expects revenue of $ 17.6 billion and adjusted earnings per share of $ 2.58.
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