Rometty Replaced As IBM CEO, Shares Spike

You know it's bad when…

The share price of the company you are were CEO of soars after you're replaced…

Krishna is currently the head of IBM’s cloud and cognitive software unit and was a principal architect of the company’s purchase of Red Hat, IBM said in a statement Thursday. Rometty will continue as executive chairman and serve through the end of the year, when she will retire after almost 40 years with the company.

Full (very lengthy) statement from IBM:

The IBM Board of Directors has elected Arvind Krishna as Chief Executive Officer of the company and a member of the Board of Directors, effective April 6, 2020. Krishna is currently IBM Senior Vice President for Cloud and Cognitive Software, and was a principal architect of the company's acquisition of Red Hat. James Whitehurst, IBM Senior Vice President and CEO of Red Hat, was also elected by the Board as IBM President, effective April 6, 2020. Virginia Rometty, IBM Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer, will continue as Executive Chairman of the Board and serve through the end of the year, when she will retire after almost 40 years with the company.

"Arvind is the right CEO for the next era at IBM," said Rometty.

"He is a brilliant technologist who has played a significant role in developing our key technologies such as artificial intelligence, cloud, quantum computing and blockchain. He is also a superb operational leader, able to win today while building the business of tomorrow. Arvind has grown IBM's Cloud and Cognitive Software business and led the largest acquisition in the company's history. Through his multiple experiences running businesses in IBM, Arvind has built an outstanding track record of bold transformations and proven business results, and is an authentic, values-driven leader. He is well-positioned to lead IBM and its clients into the cloud and cognitive era."

"Jim is also a seasoned leader who has positioned Red Hat as the world's leading provider of open source enterprise IT software solutions and services, and has been quickly expanding the reach and benefit of that technology to an even wider audience as part of IBM," Rometty continued. "In Arvind and Jim, the Board has elected a proven technical and business-savvy leadership team."

Virginia Rometty, 62, became Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of IBM in 2012. During her tenure she made bold changes to reposition IBM for the future, investing in high value segments of the IT market and optimizing the company's portfolio. Under Rometty's leadership, IBM acquired 65 companies, built out key capabilities in hybrid cloud, security, industry and data, and AI both organically and inorganically, and successfully completed one of the largest technology acquisitions in history. She reinvented more than 50% of IBM's portfolio, built a $21 billion hybrid cloud business and established IBM's leadership in AI, quantum computing and blockchain, while divesting nearly $9 billion in annual revenue to focus the portfolio on IBM's high value, integrated offerings.

Rometty also established IBM as the industry's leading voice in technology ethics and data stewardship, working relentlessly to usher new technologies safely into society, and enabling people of diverse backgrounds and education levels to participate in the digital future. She has been committed to building talent and skills around the world. She created thousands of New Collar jobs and championed the reinvention of education around the world, including the explosive growth of the six-year Pathways in Technology Early College High Schools, or P-TECHs, which are helping prepare the workforce of the future, serving hundreds of thousands of students in 200 schools and 24 countries.

"Ginni has provided outstanding leadership for IBM, substantially transforming the company and ushering in a new cloud and cognitive era," said Michael Eskew, Lead Director of the IBM Board of Directors. "She has taken bold strategic actions to reposition IBM for the future, shedding businesses and growing new units organically and through acquisition, all while achieving record diversity and employee engagement and setting the industry standard for responsible technology ethics and data stewardship."

"With the strong foundation now established by Ginni for IBM's future, the Board is confident that Arvind is the right CEO to lead IBM," Eskew continued. "The Board ran a world-class succession process and found in Arvind a leader with the business acumen, operational skills, and technology vision needed to guide IBM in this fast-moving industry."

https://www.zerohedge.com/technology/rometty-replaced-ibm-ceo-shares-spike

Amazon Soars After Blowout Q4 Earnings Smash Expectations, Joins $1 Trillion "Cuatro Comas" Club

Last quarter, when Amazon reported otherwise respectable Q3 earnings, the market hammered the stock after margins unexpectedly shrank to a 6 quarter low, its AWS cloud segment disappointed, and Amazon guided to surprisingly disappointing operating income guidance. But it wasn't just last quarter: AMZN shares closed lower the next day after four of the past five announcements. Such earnings disappointments were sufficient to create a material schism between the rest of the FAANG complex, which soared higher in the post-QE4 period, and Amazon which has failed to make much headway.

Well, Amazon's period in the penalty box is finally over, with the stock soaring 15% after hours after it reported Q4 earnings, joining its FAANG peers in the quatro commas club with a market cap finally well over $1 trillion.

Here is a summary of the fourth quarter highlights:

Q4 Net Sales $87.4B, above the consensus estimate of $86.17B, and above the high end of the company's own range of $80-$86.5BN

Q4 EPS $6.47, smashing expectations of $4.11

Q4 operating income $3.88 billion, up 2.5% y/y, and also smashing estimates of $2.75 billion

Q4 AWS Net Sales $9.95B, also modestly beating expectations of $9.89B, and up 34% Y/Y, a modestly slowdown from 45% a year earlier

In short, Amazon beat analyst expectations across the board during the holiday quarter: on revenue, operating income, and AWS sales (barely). Impressively, Jeff Bezos even defied predictions for a slump in net income, pulling in $3.26 billion, from $3.02 billion a year earlier.

Looking to Q1 2020, guidance was also solid:

Net sales are expected to be between $69.0 billion and $73.0 billion, or up between 16% and 22% Y/Y, vs Est. $71.56BN.

Operating income between $3.0 billion and $4.2 billion, compared with $4.4 billion in first quarter 2019.

It is worth noting that the guidance includes approximately $800 million lower depreciation expense due to an increase in the estimated useful life of our servers beginning on January 1, 2020.

And yet, despite the otherwise impressive outlook, taking the midline of Amazon's Q1 revenue guidance of $71BN would indicate another modest slowdown in total revenue, the lowest since March 2018.

https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/amazon-soars-after-blowout-q4-earnings-smash-expectations-joins-1-trillion-cuatro-comas

>>7969634

Surely you are using a VPN

Syrian Army Uncovers Militants’ Caves In Southwest Aleppo (Photos)

On January 30, the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) uncovered a series of caves dug by militants in the outskirt of the town of Khan Tuman in southwest Aleppo, according to the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA).

Militants apparently used these caves, which were dug into the side of a hilltop in Khan Tuman, as hideouts, depots or shelters.

https://southfront.org/syrian-army-uncovers-militants-caves-in-southwest-aleppo-photos/

Always living underground, fucking cabal demons

Three rockets fired from Gaza at southern Israel

Two missiles downed by Iron Dome, newborn,

mother hurt during rush to bomb shelter as tensions rise following earlier exchange

Three rockets were fired from Gaza into southern Israel late Thursday night, the Israel Defense Forces said.

There were no direct injuries,but an infant was moderately injured during a rush into a bomb shelter in Sderot.

Two of the rockets were shot down by the Iron Dome anti-missile system. A third landed in an open field

https://www.timesofisrael.com/several-rockets-fired-from-gaza-at-southern-israel-two-downed-by-iron-dome/

Baby killing time

Fire rockets never hit anything then get the shit bombed out of us…..hmmmm just doesn't make sense?!

>>7969802

https://twitter.com/IDF/status/1222999596814815237

EVIL