New York — In one of the most closely watched successions on Wall Street, IBM Corp. on Tuesday named the company's president and chief operating officer, Samuel Palmisano, to succeed Louis Gerstner as chief executive.
The move, a topic of mounting speculation for months, takes effect March 1. Gerstner will remain chairman of the technology giant until the end of 2002.
"From March 1 on, Sam is our new leader," Gerstner, 59, told IBM employees in a memo.
Palmisano, who headed several departments before taking over the company's day-to-day operations in September 2000, assumes control after a Gerstner-led turnaround in IBM's fortunes.
Gerstner, who took over in 1993, transformed IBM from a flagging computer maker into a competitive global enterprise with a focus on information services and workplace technology.
During those years, IBM's stock price increased more than 800 percent. The company's market value has grown by $180 billion.
Palmisano, 50, joined IBM in 1973. As head of IBM's server and enterprise storage businesses, he led the development of the company's successful eServer product line.
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