IBM Income Down Slightly

IBM Corp. on Monday reported quarterly income from continuing operations of US$1.5 billion, down slightly from $1.6 billion in the third quarter of 2004.

IBM’s total revenue for the third quarter of 2005 was $21.5 billion, down 8 percent from the third quarter of 2004. Excluding IBM’s divested PC business, the company’s revenue increased 4 percent from a year ago.

IBM’s earnings per share for the third quarter of 2005, which ended Sept. 30, was $0.94, IBM said in a press release. Earnings per share, excluding a one-time charge of $525 million for taxes connected with the planned repatriation of foreign earnings, were $1.26 per share, beating the $1.13 per share consensus estimate of analysts polled by Thomson First Call.

Excluding one-time charges, IBM’s earnings per share in the third quarter of 2004 was $1.03.

Without one-time charges, IBM’s income from continuing operations was $2 billion for the third quarter of 2005, up $292 million, or 17 percent, from the same quarter in 2004, the company said.

IBM, based in Armonk, New York, had a “good quarter,” showing the strength of the company’s business model in hardware, software and services, said Samuel Palmisano, IBM’s chairman and chief executive officer, in a statement. IBM revenue for business transformation services grew more than 30 percent from the third quarter of 2004, the company said.

By Grant Gross, IDG News Service