>>>> Why would it be a surprise that IBM is more profitable than Apple?
>>>
>>> Because, last I heard, the company was in severe financial trouble and
>>> was close to being liquidated. To go from that to being one of the most
>>> profitable companies on Earth is a pretty big turn-around.
>>
>> "Last you heard" was in the 80s, and you heard wrong.
>
> OK, fair enough. But given that they were once a big name that everybody
> knew and talked about, and now nobody ever mentions their name, it's not
> surprising that I got the impression that they weren't doing so well.

They're still a pretty big name.  Just because you haven't heard from 
them doesn't mean no one has.  You've heard of Thinkpad latops, haven't 
you?  They spun off that division 5 years ago because, while it was 
profitable, it wasn't profitable enough...  This means their server 
divisions, application divisions, as well as their service offerings 
were even more succesful.

Every single developped country's government uses IBM mainframes.
Every single bank in the world still uses IBM mainframes.
Every single insurance compnay in the world still uses IBM mainframes.
Every single airline in the world still uses IBM mainframes.
Most of the Fortune 1000 companies have IBM mainframes (Google is 
probably one of the very few exceptions)

Most of the above will have hundreds of P-Series (AIX) servers, AS/400s, 
And intel-based servers made by IBM.  Not to mention use various Tivoli 
monitoring tools, Websphere applications platforms, and in many case, 
Lotus Notes for internal e-mail.

Also, watch this, when you have 15 minutes of spare time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39jtNUGgmd4

>
>> Survived what? The Exxon Valdez disaster was a mere footnote in their
>> history.
>
> One of the worst, most infamous ecological catastrophes in human
> history, and it's a "mere footnote"?? How did it not end their
> existence? How did they not get sued off the face of creation?
>

You've heard of appeals courts?  Exxon has yet to pay a single cent of 
what they were fined, and even when they finally do, it will not harm 
them in the long run.  Their fine has been capped at $507M, which is 
roughly their profits for one week (they made $30B in profits last year).

Oh, and by the way, the Bhopal disaster hadn't killed Union Carbide 
before they were bought out by Dow Chemicals, and last summer's 
Deepwater Horizon tragedy will not kill BP, either.  It's sad, but it's 
the truth.

>> Don't base your financial knowledge on Kevin Costner movies.
>
> There's a movie?

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114898/

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