Jeopardy
IBM's Sam Palmisano: A super second act
March 4, 2011: 5:00 AM ETCEO Sam Palmisano took a revitalized IBM and made it the envy of the tech world and darling of investors. His secret? He's restored Big Blue's focus on innovation and set it up for an even brighter future. (Move over, Lou Gerstner.)
Here is what you probably know about IBM. You know International Business Machines was one of America's first tech companies, and in the 1960s and 1970s became the world's leading computer maker on the strength and power of its huge mainframes. It all went to hell in the 1980s, when personal computers and servers supplanted those mainframes, and an arrogant and bloated IBM was caught flat-footed. The board brought in Lou Gerstner, who famously stabilized the company (in part by firing tens of thousands of employees) and got it to grow again by steering IBM into the unsexy -- but high-margin -- business of systems integration and services. Perhaps you recently watched an IBM computer, Watson, trounce a couple of brainiacs on the game show Jeopardy.
Now, here's what you might not know: Nine years after Gerstner stepped down as CEO, IBM (IBM) is financially and strategically stronger and, yes, sexier than ever -- all thanks to Sam Palmisano, Gerstner's successor. Under Palmisano, earnings have quadrupled and the stock is up 57%. He's not merely cutting costs (though he's done plenty of that, including shifting work from the U.S. to India). He's remaking the company by pushing into new countries and expanding hot businesses such as supercomputing and analytics that require heavy-duty lab innovations. Last year's R&D spending? Some $6 billion, or 6% of IBM's nearly $100 billion in annual sales. Its 5,896 patents in 2010 -- more than any company in the world -- help explain why it lands at No. 12 on Fortune's annual list of the World's Most Admired Companies. That Jeopardy-playing computer isn't just a gimmick; it is at the heart of IBM's long-term growth strategy.
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Today in Tech: Steve Jobs' cancer treatment
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"I, for one, welcome our new computer overlords." -- Jeopardy contender Ken Jennings during last night's competition.
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If you only watch Jeopardy! once...
Watch it this afternoon, when an IBM supercomputer takes on two human champions
It's the biggest man vs. machine confrontation since Deep Blue humiliated Gary Kasparov on the chess board in 1997.
Over the course of three episodes -- February 14, 15 and 16 -- an IBM (IBM) supercomputer named Watson will challenge Jeopardy!'s most successful human contestants.
We're not privy to the outcome, but based on the level of pre-publicity generated by MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Feb 14, 2011 1:33 PM ET -
Bill Atkinson: Watch Jeopardy! Feb. 14
The man who wrote MacPaint thinks it could be a milestone in computer development
Bill Atkinson was part of Steve Jobs' hand-picked team at Apple (AAPL) that developed the original Macintosh -- the one that popularized the mouse, windows and drop-down menus -- so he knows something about what computer engineers call human interface design.
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Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Jan 26, 2011 4:56 PM ETPosted in: Apple, Bill Atkinson, Deep Blue, DeepQA, Garry Kasparov, IBM, Jeopardy, MacPaint, Moblie, Steve Jobs
