I.B.M. in Deal to Farm Out Some PC Jobs "The move is part of I.B.M.'s continuing drive to cut costs as it focuses on software and services. In recent months, I.B.M. has sold its disk-drive business to Hitachi, while adding to its services and software presence by purchasing PricewaterhouseCoopers Consulting and Rational Software."
I guess IBM plans to only make specialty computers these days, e.g., AS/400, mainframe, and supercomputers. It has already outsourced/partnered in many other areas, e.g., with Cisco for comms gear; of course Cisco also doesn't manufacture its own boxes...