IBM Earnings Fall in Prolonged Sales Slump

By Asa Fitch 

International Business Machines Corp.'s profit fell 38% in the third quarter and it suffered another quarter of lower sales even as Chief Executive Ginny Rometty tries to jump start growth through the $34 billion purchase of software giant Red Hat.

IBM on Wednesday said net profit fell to $1.67 billion from $2.69 billion the year prior. The company's closely watched adjusted earnings per share fell to $2.68 from $3.42 in the year-prior period, ahead of the $2.66 estimated by analysts surveyed by FactSet. IBM sales fell to $18.0 billion, below analysts expectations, from $18.76 billion.

The revenue decline was IBM's fifth in a row, and its 27th overall under Ms. Rometty, who has struggled to adapt the more than century-old company to a changing global information-technology landscape.

IBM shares fell around 3% in after-hours trading.

The company's earnings were dented by weak performance of its legacy business of providing IT services to other companies. Revenue for that division fell 5.6%.

Ms. Rometty has bet heavily that IBM's growth prospects lie in the booming cloud-computing market. Cloud revenue climbed 11% to $5.0 billion.

Write to Asa Fitch at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 16, 2019 17:01 ET (21:01 GMT)

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