IBM saw both revenue and profit decline in the 2014 fourth quarter, as it continues to navigate its transition to new business streams.Revenue of US$24.1 billion for the quarter was down 11.9 per cent year-on-year, while net income of US$5.48 billion was down 11.3 per cent.
The quarter four figures mark the end of a tough year for IBM, which is looking to grow its business in areas such as cloud computing, in which revenue declined 5.7 per cent to US$92.8 billion year-on-year.
While IBM reported full-year revenue growth in cloud, business analytics, mobile and security, which it labels its “strategic imperatives”, the new business streams are yet to make a significant dent in the decline in other areas of the business.
IBM has indicated it will continue to assess its various business streams, with chief financial officer Martin Schroeter telling Reuters IBM will “continue to divest if something doesn’t fit the model”.
“We are making significant progress in our transformation, continuing to shift IBM’s business to higher value, and investing and positioning ourselves for the longer term,” commented Ginni Rometty, IBM chairman, president and chief executive officer.
“In 2014, we repositioned our hardware portfolio for higher value, maintained a services backlog of $128 billion and achieved strong revenue growth across cloud, analytics, mobile, social and security. Together these strategic imperatives grew 16 per cent in 2014 and now represent $25 billion and 27 per cent of our revenue.”
