XIV has been acquired by IBM
It's "old new" already, but I'm obliged to say that on Wednesday IBM has finally announced that they are buying XIV, where I held a position for the last 28 months. It has made major headlines here in Israel, and I got my picture on the newspapers (it's the second time. the first time was unexpectedly with Cooperative Linux).

The Israeli media were fond of twistingly trying to compare the deal to the storyline of a popular TV show of the recent year (מסודרים - ויקיפדיה), and kept trying to dig up information about how much money was involved in the deal (luckily, without success). Unlike in any other country that I know of, when a company is acquired in Israel, they often use the word "exit" to describe it (i.e. for 'exiting the business' with a large personal fortune) in a sense that emphasizes greed, rather than just use the word 'purchase', 'buy', or 'acquire'. I don't support this greedy kind of vocabulary...

XIV's flag product is Nextra, and it is based on a Linux cluster. For the last 28 months I am responsible for maintaining Linux patches and various drivers that surround it. In a gradual shift during the following weeks I'd become an IBM employee. I'm quite excited about it.