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Politics : Stockman Scott's Political Debate Porch -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: lurqer who wrote (32371)	12/8/2003 8:55:00 AM
From: stockman_scott	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 89467

IBM Sees Firms Increase Spending On Technology ________________ By WILLIAM M. BULKELEY Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL December 5, 2003 International Business Machines Corp. executives said they are finally seeing signs of an upturn in corporate spending on technology and predicted that Big Blue will grow faster than the rest of the information-technology industry as business expands. Because IBM sells its services, software and computers almost exclusively to business, it hasn't benefited from the consumer-spending boom that has helped many electronics retailers and manufacturers. Although the company's revenue for the nine months ended Sept. 30 rose 9.9% from a year earlier, the gain was entirely due to acquisitions and currency-translation gains. Chief Financial Officer John Joyce, speaking at IBM's annual presentation to Wall Street analysts in New York, avoided commenting on the current quarter but he reiterated comments last month by Chairman Samuel Palmisano that "businesses are starting to take some risk." Mr. Joyce also told the audience that IBM is "continuing to gain market share" against most of its competitors. He said that, long term, IBM remains committed to increasing its earnings per share by more than 10% annually. Last year earnings per share from continuing operations fell 33%. Mr. Joyce said that next year IBM will gain from improving margins in the consulting business it acquired from PricewaterhouseCoopers PLC last year. He also reiterated that losses in the semiconductor business are being brought under control. Mr. Joyce hinted that IBM could increase its level of share repurchasing, which could contribute to the per-share earnings growth. IBM has bought back stock aggressively for a decade, but it slowed the repurchases during the current year due to costs of paying for two big acquisitions. Mr. Joyce said that IBM directors will consider increasing the buyback rate before the end of the year. Write to William M. Bulkeley at bill.bulkeley@wsj.com1