Big Blue Beats Street
New York, Jul 19, 2000 (123Jump via COMTEX) -- International Business Machines
Corp. (NYSE:IBM) posted second-quarter results for the period ended June 30
after the market closed Wednesday. Net income for the quarter was $1.9 billion,
or $1.06 per diluted share, compared to $1.7 billion, or 91 cents (excluding
special items) in the same period a year ago. Analysts polled by First
Call/Thompson Financial predicted earnings of $1.00 per share. Special items
excluded, 2000 diluted earnings per share saw a 16% increase.
Sluggish sales dropped revenue 1% to $21.7 billion in the second quarter, from
$21.9 billion in the same period last year. Excluding currency fluctuations,
revenue would have remained flat. Revenues in the Americas fell 3% to $9.7
billion over last year. Revenues from Europe/Middle East/Africa fell 9% to $5.9
billion, but would have been flat minus currency fluctuations, and Asia-Pacific
grew 20%, or 13% aside from currency fluctuations, to $4.3 billion.
Revenues benefited from the company's server business, high-end disk drives and
other products relating to e-business. On the downside, hardware revenue fell 5%
from last year to $9.2 billion, hard drive revenue dropped $250 million in the
quarter and revenue from the company's PC business suffered from component
shortages.
Revenue generated by IBM Global Services rose 2% to $8.2 billion. However,
comparisons for the unit are difficult due to the sale of its Global Network to
AT&T (NYSE:T) last year.
By the end of the second quarter, the company's services backlog totaled $75
billion. The company had new service contract signings in the quarter of $20
billion.
Shares in IBM closed Wednesday at 103 9/16, up 1/4 or 0.24%.
IBM Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Louis V. Gerstner, Jr. said in a
company statement, "Our second-quarter results are right in line with our
expectations and with the view we've been expressing since last October.
Essentially, we've had three quarters of slow revenue growth, driven by a
combination of the Y2K slowdown and a series of actions we've taken to improve
our business portfolio. During that time, however, we have been able to produce
satisfactory earnings growth."
For the six months ended June 30,2000, net income was $3.5 billion, or $1.89 per
diluted share, down from net income of $3.9 billion, or $2.05 per diluted share,
in the same period last year. Excluding one-time events, including the sale of
Global Network in 1999, net income would have been $3.2 billion or $1.69 per
diluted share. Revenue for the six month period fell 3% to $41 billion, compared
to $42.2 billion in the fist six months of 1999.
IBM expects to see sales pick-up in the second half and company CFO John Joyce
indicated that the company is still comfortable with analysts' earnings
predictions for the year, which come in at $4.36 per share.
CONTACT: For more information, contact 123Jump.com, Inc.
212-968-8700
Send comments or questions to: info@123jump.com
Or, visit 123Jump.com at: 123jump.com
All Rights Reserved. (c) Copyright: 2000 123jump.com, Inc.
-0-
*** end of story *** |
