IBM CEO Ginni Rometty to retire
Posted Jan 30, 2020 3:43 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
ARMONK, N.Y. — IBM CEO Ginni Rometty is stepping down after nearly 40 years with the computing giant and eight years at its helm.
The company said Thursday that Arvind Krishna will take over as CEO starting April 6. Krishna has been IBM’s senior vice-president for cloud computing and cognitive software and also has a long career at the company.
IBM has been trying to revitalize its business to become a leader in cloud technology.
Cloud computing, in which services are delivered over the internet from remote computers, has become a growing portion of IBM’s revenue. But the company has been overshadowed by top cloud rivals Amazon, Microsoft and Google in competing to sell its internet-based computing services to businesses.
In a risky effort to catch up to the competition, IBM announced in 2018 that it planned to spend $34 billion to buy North Carolina-based software company Red Hat. It was the biggest acquisition in IBM’s century-long history — one which the company says Krishna was a “principal architect” in making happen.
Rometty will remain IBM’s executive chairwoman until the end of the year.
The Associated Press
