International Business Machines

RANK118

In 2019 IBM took the most dramatic step yet in its years-long project of adapting to a fast-changing tech environment, one in which Big Blue's historic dominance has been steadily eroded. In its largest acquisition ever, IBM spent $34 billion to buy Red Hat, the main distributor of the open-source operating system Linux. But progress on the company's top priorities—cloud computing, social engagement, mobile devices, and data analytics—has remained frustratingly slow, with revenue shrinking by 3% in 2019. This spring, however, the venerable computer giant got a new leader to take it forward. In April 2020, Arvind Krishna took the reins as CEO from Ginny Rometty, who had been serving in the role since 2012 and who remains executive chairman.