IBM as the silver lining on an otherwise dark horizon

21 January 2009

IBM declared its latest quarterly profits, which are up by 12 per cent, along with issuing an optimistic forecast for 2009, making the company's results the silver lining on the dark cloud of the technology sector.

The company also reported having had some measure of success in its cost cutting measures.

IBM's net profit during the fourth quarter went up by 12 per cent in a year-on-year comparison, touching $4.4 billion, prompting IBM's chief Samuel Palmisano terming the year as "outstanding".

The company said that it expects earnings of around $9.20 per share in 2009, significantly higher than analysts estimated.

IBM's profit margin was up by three per cent from a year ago, at 47.9 per cent. The results bolstered the share price of the company, where it climbed almost five per cent in after-hours trading in New York.

Other firms in the technology sector have not been able to fare as well as IBM, with Intel having reported a sharp 90 per cent drop in profit during the final quarter of 2008, with the liklihood of the chip maker posting its first loss in over two decades during the current quarter.