Watson Health

IBM Watson Health was IBM's healthcare AI division, launched in 2015 with the acquisition of health data companies Phytel, Explorys, Truven Health Analytics, and Merge Healthcare for over $4 billion combined. The division promised to revolutionize medicine through AI-powered diagnostics, drug discovery, and care management. By 2022, after billions more in investment and chronic underperformance, IBM sold the unit to Francisco Partners. Watson Health exemplifies strategic apoptosis: recognizing when a division—even one central to corporate identity—cannot achieve viability, and executing controlled exit rather than allowing slow necrosis.