[pickle-wizard]

I used to work for IBM. When working on customer engagements the services teams are required to pay for IBM software that it uses. This goes back to the consent decree with the Justice Department after the anti-trust investigation in the late 70s. So splitting up won't effect that.

[pfortuny]

But (honest question) can the services business NOT offer an IBM product?

[2sk21]

Most certainly - IBM will happily support software products from companies with competing products like Oracle and SAP in service agreements.