IBM revenues rise for the first time in over five years
IBM has emerged from an extended dry spell of absolutely no revenue growth to speak of after posting a welcome one per cent increase in revenue over the last quarter to reach $22.54bn, its first such uptick since 2012.
IBM revenues rise for the first time in over five years
Buoyed by some astute investments and an artificial intelligence gold rush, IBM nevertheless sank to a quarterly loss of $1.05bn although this was attributable to a one-off hit of $5.5bn relating to recent tax changes.
Across the year as a whole IBM achieved profits of $5.75bn with annual revenue for the entirety of 2017 coming in at $79.14bn, comfortably exceeding low expectations on Wall Street.
IBM CEO Ginni Rometty commented: "Our strategic imperatives revenue again grew at a double-digit rate and now represents 46 percent of our total revenue, and we are pleased with our overall revenue growth in the quarter.
"During 2017, we strengthened our position as the leading enterprise cloud provider and established IBM as the blockchain leader for business."
IBM had been laboring under a 22-quarter long pall of gloom brought about by inexorably falling sales, necessitating increasingly aggressive steps to reposition the flagging company, including the launch of its Watson AI-power platform.