We got an earnings report from IBM, and the picture they paint isn't pretty. The technology bellwether had a rough quarter and gave rough guidance.
It's no secret that IBM has been trying to transform itself from a hardware business to a services business for several years, but they are starting to hit a real wall in those efforts. Here are the revenues for various divisions for the fourth quarter (Q4), courtesy of Gartner:
- Global Technology Services was down 4 percent;
- Global Business Services rose 1 percent
- Software was up 3 percent;
- Hardware plummeted 26 percent
The problem is pretty obvious: hardware revenues are declining rapidly, while services and software are mostly flat.
