A second business deemed surplus to chairman Louis’ plan is reportedly on the block, according to a Wall Street Journal report which says Merrill Lynch & Co is peddling IBM Corp’s $3bn to $4bn Global Network business to prospective suitors. No one has published details of any such prospectus and IBM told ComputerWire it doesn’t comment on rumor and speculation. However, the news comes just three months after the same paper reported another brokerage house is hawking Big Blue’s printing business around – a sale which our European colleagues tell us is nearly complete. IBM’s policy, however, has been to throw up as much chaff around that story lest customers jump ship before the ship changes its home port. Evidently, IBM does not want to commit the resources, estimated at $200m a year just to upgrade infrastructure, to develop a business in a market which others such as Equant NV, are keenly pursuing. Indeed Equant recently went to the market and is already capitalized at $8.1bn. Perhaps wisely, IBM wants to leave the market, where data and voice networks converge, to a multitude of telcos – including British Telecommunications Plc, WorldCom Inc and Global One – eager to spread their wings. Equant operates the worldÆs largest managed router-based data network, with coverage in 140 countries. IBM’s Global Network comes in second for reach with 900 cities covered in 50 countries.
