International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE:IBM) reported its earnings for the quarter ending in January today. The company earned $2.78 in the first quarter and managed to take in in revenues of $24.67 billion in the period. Analysts had expected the company to earn $2.78 and take in revenues of $24.8 billion. In the same period last year the company reported revenue of $24.6 billion and turned that into earnings of $2.31 per share. That puts them with a healthy increase in earnings year on year that will keep investors happy for the time being. Investors are reacting favorably to the news, shares are up 2.33% at the time of this writing.
The company has drifted from the consumer computer and electronics market in the last decade particularly after Lenovo, a Chinese company, purchased the firm’s personal computer business in 2005. Since then the business has concentrated on working on business end computing solutions in order to remain one of the world’s largest computer companies. They work with software solutions and hardware installation while half of their revenue comes from services they deliver to their clients.
The company’s hardware division, particularly corporate hardware installations are still very important to the company. This part of the business was very important in gains made this quarter in market share in the high end server industry.
The company is also one of the world’s largest providers of supercomputers on an industrial, commercial and academic scale. The company recently announced the installation of one of its machine in a new computing center opened in Rutgers University.
Despite this the company has tended to move further into the data analysis sector and away from the hardware manufacturing sector. The company sold it Retail Sales Solutions division off last week to Toshiba in a deal worth about $850 million.
That analysis sector of the business is being expanded at the moment. The firm has embarked on a number of acquisitions recently pointing to an expansion into the industry of business analysis software. That industry is continuing to grow and International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE:IBM) is getting in early.
If the company is able to continue expansion into software solutions for businesses and get into the market before rivals can take hold that sector could be quite a boon to IBM in the coming years. Sales analysis and other business metrics will likely form a core part of the firm’s business going forward.
International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE:IBM) is a company with more experience than any other in the computing industry. It’s changes going forward are not being made lightly and should prove an intriguing future for the future.
