I think IBM is turning around. It missed the cloud shift by quite a few years, but they know it, and they are re-inventing themselves, which is quite commendable for a large 100+ year old company.
HN often lives in the startup + Facebook + Google + latest tech trend bubble. But there is a whole world of enterprise + government (DoD) tech world out there that exists, but it is not talked much about here, unless it is being made fun of perhaps.
IBM is no longer just focused on enterprise and government. There's a big focus now on startups. Take a look at the Bluemix Garage where there's IBM engineers embedded in Galvanize in SF to work with startups but also help enterprises bridge the gap and learn from them; and also look at digital.nyc and tech.london. Both are IBM initiatives. So... IBM today isn't like the IBM that most people imagine and I am sure that the IBM of tomorrow will be completely different. You don't get to be over 100 years old and a tech company unless you can reinvent yourself to stay relevant.
HN often lives in the startup + Facebook + Google + latest tech trend bubble. But there is a whole world of enterprise + government (DoD) tech world out there that exists, but it is not talked much about here, unless it is being made fun of perhaps.