International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE:IBM) announced that its board of directors approved a 16% increase in its quarterly cash dividend from $0.95 to $1.10 per common share, which will be payable on June 10 to shareholders of record May 9, 2014.
In a statement, Ginni Rometty, the chairman, president, and CEO of International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE:IBM) said, “Today’s announcement reinforces our commitment to delivering value to shareholders. We will continue to invest aggressively in our strategic growth areas including cloud, big data analytics, social, mobile and security to position the company to drive growth and higher value for our clients.”
According to the company, it increased its quarterly cash dividend for 19 consecutive years. International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE:IBM) said its dividend doubled over the past five years or increased more 800% since the beginning of year 2000.
IBM expands MobileFirst Application Development portfolio
Separately, International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE:IBM) significantly expanded its IBM MobileFirst Application Development portfolio with new offerings and by opening 18 new studios worldwide to help business leaders accelerate their mobile initiatives.
The IBM MobileFirst studios allow its clients to have direct access to its team of mobile experts including designers, developers, architects and consultants in locations around the globe.
Marie Wieck, general manager of MobileFirst at International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE:IBM) said, “As mobile apps become a primary touch point with clients, the stakes run high to delight consumers. At the same time, the cost of a poorly designed app can significantly impact both the brand and bottom line. IBM’s mobile platform, apps and studios are designed to help businesses accelerate the adoption of a mobile strategy for business growth.”
Tools for developers
The company offers a complete range of tools for developers to create, deploy, and manage mobile apps on premise or in the cloud through IBM Worklight, a mobile enterprise app development platform; and BlueMix, which delivers similar capabilities as cloud-based services. Developers can use both technologies with Cloudant, IBM’s NoSQL distributed database-as-a-service (DBaaS) for mobile apps.
In addition, International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE:IBM) said its MobileFirst Business Acceleration portfolio offers IBM Ready App, a suite of industry-specific, pre-configured apps that helps clients save as much as 60% of time and resources.
Furthermore, IBM Ready App for Retail, In-Store Associate help retailers track productivity, check inventory and view store maps to analyze in-store foot traffic to improve customer.
