FUDBusters: J.P. Morgan Chase Backs Out of IBM Deal

FUDBust: Less than two years into the deal, J.P. Morgan Chase has changed its mind. The company's July merger with Bank One has caused it to re-evaluate its IT strategy, now proclaiming insourcing the best solution. No one will ever know for sure whether the great IBM-J.P. Morgan experiment worked--partly because nobody's talking and partly because IBM is still working on some key elements of its on-demand vision, such as automated provisioning.

This is the second time J.P. Morgan has entered into a "revolutionary" outsourcing deal, only to send its vendors packing. In 1996, the banking giant signed a landmark deal with the Pinnacle Alliance--which included AT&T Solutions, Andersen Consulting (now Accenture), Bell Atlantic Network Integration and Computer Sciences Corp. That deal was supposed to usher in a wave of outsourcing alliances, but like the IBM deal, it turned out to be a FUDdy dud.