IBM

“The first derivative ever done was done by David Swenson when he was working at Salomon Brothers. It was an interest rate swap between IBM and the World Bank”

“Here we had a very select number, maybe three folks on the investment committee. Folks that, Ted, you know, and David Swenson, who was there from Yale. We had the CIO from General Motors and the former CIO at IBM.”

“And sure enough, IBM was a complete dud. However, it allowed for them to begin the journey to technology, and sometime later, instead of a six billion dollar position in the dud, IBM, they have a forty billion dollar position in Apple, and they were willing to…”

“Because my dad, there's a whole nother story, but still owns IBM stock that he bought in 1959.”

“They basically overnight went from competing for every deal with IBM to suddenly being the dominant on-prem e-commerce company.”

“They spent twenty million dollars on us over the years and were using us for very important internal applications that they could not power with their own software.”

“I think they're very likely going to become like IBM and HP and just chugging along and not really doing much new innovative stuff. They'll still be around and they'll still have their services, but I think that their relevance and growth are limited.”

“While he was at Salomon Brothers, he came up with a cockamamie idea that nobody had ever heard of. An interest rate swap, a hundred million dollars, principle, between the World Bank and IBM.”

“The infrastructure of it is a little bit reminiscent of the Apple, IBM computer debate of the nineties, where it's like you were never incented to buy an Apple product if you were a corporate purchasing person, because you got no penalty for buying IBM and you…”

“We'd say, look, you don't need to come by, but if you guys ever see on your desk a bond that you've never heard of, or a stock you've never heard of, or a shareholder in a business that wants to move it quickly, we're your call. So don't call us with IBM Insig…”

“Sales can be a trained skill. I sat next to very introverted people. Who were exquisite salespeople. I sat next to people who I considered to be pretty average horsepower. Very strong salespeople. I sat next to a very good looking, very charming people who cou…”

“For 30 plus years, almost every conversation I have fits that structure. It's a habit. Anybody I ever meet, that is how I will structure a conversation.”