So more an IP acquisition and IBM sure does know from decades of experience to recognise some company that fills a gap that has usurped their own offerings and acquired it.

You may well be right, indeed that was along the lines of my initial thought about this and would explain the size and scale of investment. Then if RH fails as they would currently to keep up those interest payments, then accountants can just rub their hands and use that debt to offset profits down the line.

Time will tell, certainly IBM has the kit and for years had its own dark fiber internet backbone globally, so have been well placed for years to capture the cloud market, yet failed to move on. Which for a company that saw a shift towards service offerings, was probably a big source of embarrassment internally at some levels.