This shouldn’t surprise anyone who has dealt with IBM over the past 10-20 years.

1 - IBM audits your company’s software usage.

2 - They find a couple servers that someone forgot to turn off a decade ago that nobody uses.

3 - Since it was found in an audit “you’ll lose the 90% discount” and they present the CFO with a $20 million bill.

4 - “It pains us to have to enforce this MSA that your predecessors signed 20 years ago. In the spirit of partnership we can make this go away with a $2 million Watson purchase.”

5 - You get the Watson subscription which you don’t dare turn on.

6 - IBM touts the growth of AI to Wall Street [0] and fires a bunch of old people [1].

Of course this wasn’t going to end well.

[0] https://www.constellationr.com/insights/news/ibm-q4-better-e...

[1] https://www.publicjustice.net/federal-court-boston-ibm-age-d...

Related:

IBM is on pace for its worst day ever

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48907665