http://stockmarketbeat.com/blog1/2006/10/13/console-ation/ Our beat: The stock market. Our job: Beat it. Sat, 19 Jul 2008 19:43:39 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.2.1 http://stockmarketbeat.com/blog1/2006/10/13/console-ation/#comment-4362 Stock Market Beat » Blog Archive » IBM Easily Clears Low Hurdle Thu, 19 Oct 2006 12:00:29 +0000 http://stockmarketbeat.com/blog1/2006/10/13/console-ation/#comment-4362 [...] IBM beat earnings expectations by a dime and the shares soared after hours, but moving beyond a cursory glance at the numbers provides little cause for optimism. Overall sales grew only 5% year/year, which is hardly going gangbusters. Margins improved because the year-ago number included significant charges and because of sales gains in the profitable microelectronics and software businesses. However, the microelectronics gains were widely anticipated (IBM sells the chips for the new generation of game consoles) and as Reuters notes the gains in software were partly due to acquisitions. International Business Machines Corp. of Armonk, New York, in the third quarter announced more than $3.6 billion of acquisitions in software companies as it expanded its most profitable business amid slowing growth in computer services, its largest unit. Software revenue rose 8.5 percent to $4.4 billion in the third quarter. [...] […] IBM beat earnings expectations by a dime and the shares soared after hours, but moving beyond a cursory glance at the numbers provides little cause for optimism. Overall sales grew only 5% year/year, which is hardly going gangbusters. Margins improved because the year-ago number included significant charges and because of sales gains in the profitable microelectronics and software businesses. However, the microelectronics gains were widely anticipated (IBM sells the chips for the new generation of game consoles) and as Reuters notes the gains in software were partly due to acquisitions. International Business Machines Corp. of Armonk, New York, in the third quarter announced more than $3.6 billion of acquisitions in software companies as it expanded its most profitable business amid slowing growth in computer services, its largest unit. Software revenue rose 8.5 percent to $4.4 billion in the third quarter. […]

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