The news of Louis Gerstner's passing was announced to IBM employees on Sunday in an email from the company's CEO, Arvind Krishna.
Louis Gerstner took over IBM in the spring of 1993 when the company was on the verge of bankruptcy or a forced breakup. Gerstner chose to shift the company's focus from hardware manufacturing to consulting services and software. In connection with the change, 35,000 employees, just over a tenth of the workforce, had to leave the company.
The drastic changes, however, paid off. From 1993 until January 2002, when he stepped down, IBM's share price rose from $13 to $80, and the company's market capitalization increased from $29 billion to $168 billion.
After his career, Louis Gerstner devoted himself to philanthropy through Gerstner Philanthropies, focusing on educational programs in New York, Boston and Florida.
Gerstner was 83 years old.
