Seeking out possible moves to keep Apple on the leading edge of technology and user experience, a determined Tim Cook arrived at page 103 of his Strategic Decision Making in Information Technology textbook, and came across what some may call ancient wisdom -- such wisdom that seemed peculiarly familiar, as though it was encoded into his subconscious from birth. Left alone in center aligned bold text along the top of the page was scribed "NO ONE GETS FIRED FOR PARTNERING WITH IBM".

Tim, being the savvy executive and decision maker he will always be, concluded that the only logical choice is to make the decision which will virtually nullify his chance of getting fired. "Your legacy shall not go to waste, Steve...", he said under his breath as he picked up the phone.

That's hilarious. Seriously. If you want to right a longer Tim Cook fan fiction, I'd be the first one to buy your e-book.

Probably selective memory on my part but outside of a few research projects I cannot recall the last successful venture to come from IBM since the Space Shuttle onboard computers. (edit) also laptops when they made hardware but they sold off a lot of divisions it seems.