IBM saw its revenues remain flat at US$24.7bn for the first quarter of 2012. Its net income rose to US$3.1bn, up 7pc compared to the same quarter the previous year.
Its diluted earnings per share were US$2.61, up 13pc since the same quarter during the previous year.
Its first-quarter revenues in the Americas were the highest at US$10.5bn, up 1pc from 2011. Revenues from its EMEA region were US$7.6bn, down 2pc from the same period in 2011. Its revenues from growth markets in Brazil, Russia, India and China increased 10pc.
Its global technology services segment revenues were up 2pc to US$10bn, but its global business services segment revenues were down 2pc to US$4.6bn. Software revenues were up 5pc to US$5.6bn though its hardware sales were down 7pc to US$3.7bn.
IBM also raised its expectations for its diluted earnings per share to US$14.27 for the full year of 2012
“In the first quarter, we drove strong profit and earnings per share growth. We delivered another excellent software performance, expanded services margins, and continued the momentum in our growth initiatives,” said Ginni Rometty, IBM president and chief executive officer.
“Our investments in growth market countries continued to generate strong revenue growth across software, hardware and services while contributing to the company’s ongoing margin expansion,” said Rometty.
The company also recently announced that Toshiba would buy its retail store solutions business for US$850m. This would strengthen Toshiba’s position in point-of-sale solutions and the deal also gave Toshiba a multi-year agreement with IBM on services to support these systems. The deal will close late in the second quarter or early in the third quarter of 2012.
