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It's very amusing to me that you bring up IBM in a discussion of the value of Oracle.

I came here to say that if you want to understand Oracle's value, think IBM with less history.

Kind of, but there are some subtle differences in my opinion. Oracle is top-to-bottom evil, whose business model basically boils down to screwing over their clients and everyone else at every possible opportunity, comparable to the likes of McKinsey or Accenture.

IBM is a bit more nuanced. My wife grew up in an IBM town and a lot of her family and her friends’ families used to work there in the 70s and 80s. People, especially the engineers, used to take pride in their work there.

I think of IBM and GE as being cut from the same cloth back then- they treated their people well and dominated their markets.

Didn't they famously help both the Nazis and Apartheid South Africa?

Yes. Leased IBM equipment was a critical infrastructure component of the holocaust.

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