https://nypost.com/2025/12/28/business/former-ibm-ceo-louis-gerstner-who-revitalized-big-blue-dead-at-83/
36 replies (most recent on top)
@tt you are wrong and obviously not there then. My estimated pension was cut from $57,000 a year when I was recruited (I should have gone to DEC for 30 years to approx $2,000 a month. What King Louie should have done (and what we at IBM should have done is go on strike for a month) was grandfather people in and reduce or eliminate the pension for new hires. King Louie raided IBM for well over $200,000,000.
IBM Was like the Titanic takin on Water in 1993. Mr. Gerstner stopped that.
Unfortunately Serious sometimes very unpopular steps need to be taken.
Would all of you haters have been happy if IBM went belly up and had to liquidate? That would have been much worse. Pensions would have been finished if that happened.
There is valid criticism of the purchase of Lotus Notes. But overall Mr Gerstner led with Dignity and Saved the company.. FULL STOP
When Gerstner arrived in 1993, IBM was losing $8B+, and breakup was on the table. His turnaround:
Kept IBM intact
Restored profitability
Preserved millions of existing jobs and retiree benefits that would’ve vanished in bankruptcy
Without this, all pensions were at risk, not just future ones.
- Pensions were not eliminated under Gerstner
IBM’s defined-benefit pension plan remained intact during his tenure
Accrued benefits were legally protected and continued to be paid
Retirees at the time did not lose their pensions
So the claim that he “destroyed pensions” is factually incorrect.
That Lou is "no longer here to defend himself" is one of the truest blessings the universe has to offer. Death comes to the kind and cruel alike. He was the latter sort.
If Lou's sacrifice of 100k IBMers had actually "saved" the company it would have been worth it. But he didn't "save" IBM, he used its massive wealthy to create a vast financial engineering company that acts like a corporate raider - acquiring assets and then laying everyone off. And it is a company that continues to liquidate promised benefits to employees - first our pensions, our healthcare and even 401k matches. Like Lou, IBM is a net evil in this world.
Lou walked away with a $100M bonus, a private plane and a personal chef and continued to haunt ILC until they ended up renaming it after him. He got rich on the backs of IBMers and created the roadmap for offshoring all jobs to India. He personally benefited from theft of benefits and jobs and created an institution that does not innovate but destroys.
Hope you enjoy eternal damnation, you fu--ing piece of sh-t as-----h.
What does that mean? 2026 Is going t be a big year for me at IBM
Well let’s see if you change your tune this spring
The hate and Bile towards a man who is not here to defend himself. And now trashing Welch? The Venom is spewing here.
Burn in H E L L, Lou; share a bunk bed with that S-B Jack Welch that you were so in love with.
I met Mr Gerstner at a book signing for Who Said Elephants Can't dance? My College thesis was based on Mr Gerstners success of bringing IBM Back to profitability. Mr Gerstner is one of the most influential CEOs in the last 100 years.
I sure do. He led 3 American Icons and titans of Industry. Great leaders make tough decisions. Do you really think he took joy out of laying off people?
He earned every dollar. If it was not for him there would be no IBM Today.
@ja
Come on man. You don’t really believe that do you?
@jw only a lot of wishful thinking would make someone write as you did because you are not able to face reality and IBM's (failing) future. IBM is no longer the technical powerhouse that it was from the 1950s until 2000.
IBM is now on the ropes and running out of time - time is not something that the company has. "Acquisitions take time to fully pan out" is what you stated and that is true. Nothing but financial engineering from the unskilled Krabanaugh who cooks the books can make the Q4 2025 report a success.
I withhold judgement until we see revenues increasing at a significant rate.
I believe in Arvind and his team
2026 is going to be a big year for IBM
Acquisitions take time to fully pan out
A lot of Negative and mean spirited people on this board
@ja Oh really ? Is that why they have no AI, Cloud or products that rate high in today's marketplace ? Their principal expertise is in mainframes and that's going out of fashion...rather fast. Oh and before I forget, moving jobs from the US to India is another favorite expertise of IBM, even though it takes 6 Indian engineers to complete the same amount of work as a single US engineer. What's wrong with this picture, or are you as tongue tied as Krabanaugh The Underskilled ?
IBM Is a thriving 294 Billion dollar company on the cutting edge of Hybrid cloud and AI.
@cb Alvind acts like a cartoon character and worse. So does that that upskilling mo--n Krabanaugh. And his sidekick, Joanne the ja----s with the funny accent.
@d5 Just remember that Gerstner's family will be like vultures at the dinner table once the funeral services are over (or they might decide to be vultures before the funeral services are over). And the lawyers will be there too. After all, they all want a share of the spoils or estate of this tyrant.
This might sound like a cynical observation, but it's a fact of life. Get over it.
@hh, and where is that American icon IBM, today ?
He was brought in to save IBM. Not be anyones best friend. He did his job and he saved an American Icon
@gv were you there? Did you ever meet him? I was and did. He acted like a king who ruled by fear.
Mr Gerstner’s time at IBM should be divided into two parts
- Saving IBM
- Reshaping IBM
As relates to saving IBM, Gerstner made the hard calls and deserves credit. He downsized IBM to a manageable level for a HW and SW company (350k employees to 225k employees). Yes it was brutal but it needed to happen (remember IBM was borrowing money to make payroll), and yes it worked. Costs came into line with business operations.
As relates to reshaping IBM, Gerstner only gets a passing grade (C). He had the vision to remake IBM into a services company delivering one stop shopping for their customers, BUT he couldn’t sustain the changes he made from saving IBM (eg keeping costs down). He allowed IBM to become bloated again (eg 7 layers of management went back to 13) and as such costs skyrocketed as additional headcount was added for unprofitable services offerings. NOTE the slimmed down HW and SW sectors subsidized the services offerings so the remaking of IBM worked for a while. The second problem Gerstner encountered was the industry moved on him, and he failed to keep IBM innovating. As such less innovation lead to a stagnating profit margin which resulted in future CEO’s prioritizing cost cuts while refusing to cut unprofitable commodity offerings.
You are correct. But he destroyed a lot of lives and American families to do so.
Mr Gerstner saved IBM. If It was not for his bold leadership IBM could have been the largest bankruptcy ever at that time
His leadership turned billions in losses back to profitability
May his memory be a blessing
WSJ's Editorial Board's perspective.
Lou Gerstner, the Man Who Revived IBM --
https://www.wsj.com/opinion/lou-gerstner-dies-age-83-ibm-7f7cd7b3
He changed the culture and found a new business mission for the storied company that had fallen on hard times. He died Saturday at age 83.
By: The Editorial Board
Dec. 29, 2025 5:52 pm ET
Starting a business is hard, but harder still is reviving a once-great company that has fallen from its glory days. You have to change the culture in addition to finding a new business mission. That was the great achievement of Louis V. Gerstner Jr., who revived IBM in the 1990s and died Saturday at age 83.
Lou Gerstner was the first outsider to take the helm at IBM, the storied firm that once looked so dominant in computer mainframes that the Justice Department spent foolish years trying to break it up. But like many former giants, IBM lost its leadership to upstarts as the personal computer and software eras surpassed mainframes.
Taking over at IBM in 1993 after stints at RJR Nabisco and American Express, Gerstner pivoted the company from hardware to focus on business services. He stopped trying to compete with Microsoft’s Windows operating system and instead offered customers expertise in how to integrate corporate data and networks. He laid off some 10% of the company’s employees, which was a shock to the IBM tradition of lifetime tenure but underscored the necessity of change for company survival.
The strategic shift worked, and IBM revenues boomed. During his nine years as CEO, IBM’s market value rose from about $13 to $80 or so a share. The turnaround saved tens of thousands of jobs and provided comfortable livelihoods and retirements for countless families.
Gerstner worked in private equity after he left IBM, serving as chairman of the Carlyle Group from 2003-2008. He was a notable philanthropist with a special passion for education, as he showed in op-eds promoting reform in our pages over the years. Gerstner Philanthropies has invested more than $300 million in biomedical research, education and humanitarian causes.
Business management has fallen out of media and popular favor as entrepreneurs became the glory boys of American capitalism. But CEOs with vision and courage are crucial to making companies succeed. This is the reason that shareholders and boards are willing to pay good managers well. Lou Gerstner was one of the best, to the great benefit of hundreds of thousands of Americans.
Funny how fast posts get deleted here. Sure would like to know why and by whom.
@d1
I think it is because he ruthlessly fired thousands of people and cut their pensions etc. To save IBM he attacked and ended the careers of people who made IBM what it once was.
Why so many negative comments?? He saved IBM. If it was not for him IBM Would have been extinct. His vision and turning the company around was a great success. Akers wanted to split IBM into different companies. Mr Gerstner is responsible for bringing it back to profitability. Heaven gained a true warrior in Mr Gerstner
Lou Gerstner last year package was $238000000 at a rate of $50000/hour.
It was an act of thievery.
Woof 😳 peep the comments on bottom of that NYPost article. People NOT holding back fr. It’s a full-on dogpile down there. IBM leadership really should take note… lmao nope. The public reading between the lines and saying the quiet parts out loud. Big mood: they see through their whole stunt and sounds like for decades now. Real talk, hope IBM leadership catches these vibes and realizes the public ain’t buying their sh-t, they seeing their whole game for what it really is. Let’s hope IBM actually catches the vibe and realizes nobody’s buying their cap 😤💀
Mr Gerstner was a visionary and a man of honor . Imagine having the burden and responsibility to come in and literally save IBM? Mr Gerstner led with integrity and great empathy.
Arvind is like Mr Gerstner. A man with a vision and looking to advance IBM. It upsets me when people call him Alvind like he is some cartoon character. He is a human being and commands respect. He also has the burden and responsibility to make tough decisions. Arvind is a great CEO
@ab IMO, unless someone posts a threat, or confidential information, or something else illegal, threads and posts should not get deleted on a board such as this. It really makes you wonder who runs this board and why IBM seems to have a direct line to them to get anything unflattering deleted immediately.
If you were here when IBM was in tatters in 1991/92, and then helped it rise from the ashes you might feel differently. Yes, we had to say good bye to alot of colleagues and it was tough. For those who hung in there, we saw IBM come back stronger than ever. Gerstner was CEO from April 1993 to December 2002. When he started our Year End Revenue was $62.7 B with 256,207 employees when he left in 2002 Revenue was $81.2B with 315,880 Employees.
Wow those comments in the article are brutal. Glad to see the rest of the world sees what truly is going on with us.
Few hours ago, there was a thread on this forum about Lou Gerstner recent demise. In the comments, no one did shed any tears. The thread was deleted most likely for some political correctness bullsh1t.
Following the same logic, no one should be saying anything disrespectful about Hilter the NA-I since died many years ago.
Gerstner was one of the sc-m of the earth. It is a fact.
The Cookie Monster ! he only proved you don't need to know anything about computers or technology, in fact, it's probably better if you don't. He did nothing special or heroic. He simply chopped, slashed and burned, anyone can do that. What they never talk about is the "leadership" that got IBM all Fk-up in the first place. He was nothing special, just another run of the mill "executive".