IBM Emerges From Downturn As Profit And Sales Rise

Meanwhile, TBR’s Krans said he believes acquisitions will lead IBM out of the recession. “Acquisitions will play a large part in IBM’s increased level of investment and growth during 2010,” Krans said in a statement. “Over the past five years, IBM Software fine-tuned its expansion strategy, which is based in large part on the new revenue contributions from acquired companies. TBR estimates that more than half of IBM Software’s growth over the past five years can be attribute to acquisitions, as the legacy base of software revenue is much larger and more difficult to grow significantly.”

In that regard, IBM on 20 January announced its acquisition of National Interest Security Company (NISC) to further strengthen IBM’s ability to deliver advanced analytics and IT solutions to the public sector.

For his part, Brian Marshall, an analyst with Broadpoint AmTech, said, “Despite its global footprint, IBM has remained nimble and has kept its ‘feet moving’ by changing with technology trends. Instead of remaining stagnant with historical industry standards (e.g. mainframe-based client/server architectures), IBM has invested its $6 billion (£3.7 billion) annual research and development budget wisely and is a leading innovator within the constantly changing technology industry.”