(Reuters) - International Business Machines Corp said on Friday President Jim Whitehurst, who played a major role in Big Blue’s $34 billion acquisition of Red Hat two years ago, will step down from his position. The company did not specify when Whitehurst, who was named President in January 2020, would leave IBM or who would replace him. Shares of the U.S. technology firm were down nearly 3% in early trading. Whitehurst, however, will continue to work as senior adviser to Chief Executive Officer Arvind Krishna and the rest of the executive leadership team, IBM said. The company has been restructuring since Krishna took the reins a year ago to focus on cloud computing and artificial intelligence. Whitehurst, who was the former CEO of Red Hat, was supposed to lead IBM’s hybrid cloud strategy. Reporting by Tiyashi Datta in Bengaluru; Editing by Ramakrishnan M. Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.