NEW YORK: International Business Machines Corp is splitting itself into two public companies, capping a years-long effort by the world’s first big computing firm to diversify away from its legacy businesses to focus on high-margin cloud computing.
Shares of the company were up 7% in early trading on the move by Chief Executive Officer Arvind Krishna, who also engineered IBM’s US$34 billion acquisition of cloud company Red Hat last year. In a blog, Krishna called the move a “significant shift” in the 109-year-old company’s business model.