Ginni Rometty
Chairman and CEO, IBM
Buying Red Hat for thirty-four billion dollars
Rating
79Impact score
Domains
EnterpriseCloudHybrid infrastructure
Scouting report
Joined IBM as a systems engineer in 1981 and became its first woman CEO in 2012, running the company through a long and contested revenue decline as it shifted toward cloud. The decision she will be remembered for is the 2019 acquisition of Red Hat for $34 billion, structured to leave Red Hat operating independently, which is why the community did not scatter.
Curator’s note
Paid the largest sum in software history for a company that gives its product away.
Portrait
Painted from a photograph of Ginni Rometty by Asa Mathat / Fortune Live Media, licensed CC BY 2.0.
Sources
- 01Ginni Rometty en.wikipedia.org
- 02IBM acquisition of Red Hat en.wikipedia.org