Retired IBM chairman Lou Gerstner has accepted a position with a new
company. Which company or companies are they?

Former IBM CEO Lou Gerstner is now Chairman of the Carlyle Group (a
private equity company), according to several reputable sources,
including Business Week Online, CNN, and IBM itself.

"The D.C.-based Carlyle Group raised $600 million in October for an
IT-focused venture capital fund--and that was before IBM's ex-CEO Lou
Gerstner joined the firm as chairman in November."

Red Herring
http://www.redherring.com/vc/2003/01/vcdc013103.html

"Louis V. Gerstner, Jr. was chairman of the board of IBM Corporation
from April 1993 until his retirement in December 2002. He served as
chief executive officer of IBM from 1993 until March 2002. In January
2003 he assumed the position of chairman of The Carlyle Group, a
global private equity firm located in Washington, DC."

IBM
http://www-916.ibm.com/press/prnews.nsf/html/bios_lgerstner.html

"What is this mysterious company that Lou Gerstner is going to work
for? ...'The What Group?' That was the reaction of most people on
Thursday when they heard the news that Lou Gerstner, the long-time
chief executive of IBM (IBM: Research, Estimates), was accepting a
position as the chairman of The Carlyle Group."

CNN Money
http://money.cnn.com/2002/11/22/news/carlyle/

"As Carlyle Group's new chairman, IBM's former CEO will help the firm
shed its image as a defense dealmaker... To the small universe that
knows about it, Carlyle Group has an image right out of a John Grisham
novel -- a secretive firm of bigwigs that buys up lucrative defense
businesses, wins hush-hush military contracts, and manipulates
governments around the world to wring private profit out of public
policy... Now Carlyle is about to scramble the conspiracy theories. On
Nov. 21, it announced that Louis V. Gerstner Jr., the former CEO of
IBM, will join Carlyle as chairman in January."

Business Week Online
http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/nov2002/nf20021121_6576.htm

In order to locate this information, I began by using the Google News
search engine with the keyphrase "lou gerstner." This turned up one
reference, the Red Herring story linked above, from which I obtained
the lead about the Carlyle Group. A Google Web Search using the terms
"lou gerstner" + "carlyle group" then provided a wealth of data.

Google News Search: "lou gerstner"
http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&q=%22lou+gerstner

Google Web Search" "lou gerstner" + "carlyle group"
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=%22lou+gerstner%22+%22carlyle+group

I hope this is helpful. If anything is unclear or incomplete, or if
any of the links do not function, please request clarification before
rating my answer, and I'll be glad to offer further assistance.

Best wishes,
pinkfreud

They are a Private Equity firm, so your question
might better be phrased "who do they own".
I was talking to them back in 1998, wanted to
work there but stupidly remained at my old
employer.  Really cool people, and smart.  DOH!

Hi!

My fellow researcher Pinkfreud gave you excellent an answer! 

In case you wanted to know his career bedore IBM this web page from
IBM would help.

"Prior to joining IBM, Mr. Gerstner served for four years as chairman
and chief executive officer of RJR Nabisco, Inc. This was preceded by
an 11-year career at American Express Company, where he was president
of the parent company and chairman and CEO of its largest subsidiary,
American Express Travel Related Services Company. Prior to that, Mr.
Gerstner was a director of the management consulting firm of McKinsey
& Co., Inc., which he joined in 1965."

"IBM Press room-Lou Gerstner-Biography"
http://www-916.ibm.com/press/prnews.nsf/html/bios_lgerstner.html

Thanks for visiting us.