Another failing quarter for IBM despite the cloud

Sales and profits have declined again at IBM despite more cloud business, according to the company’s third quarter results.

Sales for the quarter were $19.23 billion, down 0.3 percent on the previous year. And net profit fell 4 percent to $2.9 billion for the quarter ended September.

Big Blue said it was held back by less business in its traditional systems segments, which includes mainframes.

Share prices in IBM fell over 3 percent on the news. This was despite revenue from newer cloud services growing 42 percent. Such cloud services include SoftLayer, which provides computing capacity over the internet, and Bluemix, which provides access to software over the web.

“IBM’s third-quarter performance, led by continued double-digit growth in our strategic imperatives [like cloud and cognitive computing], is a testament to our leadership in cognitive solutions and cloud,” said Ginni Rometty, IBM chairman, president and chief executive officer.

“Our ability to apply deep expertise and breakthrough technology, led by Watson [the big data analytics engine] and the IBM Cloud, to massive amounts of data is enabling us to build new markets and transform industries.

“Whether it is banks implementing IBM blockchain solutions, hospitals leveraging Watson to fight cancer, or retailers using cognitive apps built on the IBM Cloud to transform the customer experience, clients across all industries are tapping into a new kind of innovation value from IBM.”

Shareholders however will want to see both an increase in sales and profits soon, after around 20 faltering quarters.

IBM also saw its hybrid cloud processing deal with VMware for end users usurped last week by cloud rival Amazon Web Services, which signed its own deal with the virtualisation software firm.

@AntonySavvas