Zeev's Turnips Patch-No Politics (ZEEV)

[Lane Hall-Witt]

cannabis--

I'm finding it hard to get a fix on IBM's guidance for Q4. It sounds like they're saying that they're "generally comfortable" with Q4 consensus estimates -- even though some of the analysts have not yet accounted for the PWC acquisition. Is this correct? Wouldn't this suggest that they're guiding down -- only the PWC acquisition is giving them a free ride, so they don't have to take numbers lower because PWC will boost them up to "consensus" levels? I'm not on the call, but the Briefing coverage here seems to be telling a different story from the IBM tape (which is soaring).