[boomzilla]

This might be totally off base, but I can see the parallels in the shift of business in these companies:

1. IBM: main business used to be hardware, but now mostly IT services. This, believe it or not, is the most stable business. It's really hard to switch to another service provider for stuff your whole company relies on: payroll, inventory management, HR, etc.

2. Microsoft: main business used to be software, but moving to infra/productivity services. This is also as sticky as IBM's offering.

3. FB/Google: main business is selling advertisements, still looking for something to move to. If history repeats, it'll be some kind of services, but the multi-billion dollar question is, for what?

[minthd]

Google's move looks kinda like IBM's - being the technology partner in mutually beneficial tech projects. The only difference is the profit sharing arrangement and the risk/vision.