IBM records decade’s biggest growth in its sales

International Business Machines (IBM) Corp. Sales recorded a revenue of USD 16.7 billion, up 6.5 percent, in their fourth quarter. The company’s software revenue also went up by 8 percent.

This is the company’s biggest increase in the last 10 years. According to Bloomberg, analysts were expecting a revenue of USD 16 billion. The stock jumped 7.5% in extended trading.

"We increased revenue in the fourth quarter with hybrid cloud adoption driving growth in software and consulting," said Arvind Krishna, IBM chairman and chief executive officer. "Our fourth-quarter results give us confidence in our ability to deliver our objectives of sustained mid-single digit revenue growth and strong free cash flow in 2022."

On November 3, 2021, IBM hived off Kyndryl. The results are the first since IBM completed the spinoff of a large portion of its legacy infrastructure services unit to build a new company. This includes service operations like managing client data centers and traditional information-technology support.

IBM’s hybrid cloud revenue in the fourth quarter was up by up 16 percent to $6.2 billion. This makes the full year revenue to USD 20.2 billion, up by 20 percent.

The software segment clocked a revenue of USD 7.3 billion, up by 8.2 percent (Hybrid Platform & Solutions was up 7 percent, Red Hat up by 19 percent, Automation up by 13 percent, Data & AI up by 1 percent and security was down 2 percent).

"In 2021, we continued to invest for the future by increasing R&D spending, expanding our ecosystem and acquiring 15 companies to strengthen our hybrid cloud and AI capabilities," said James Kavanaugh, IBM senior vice president and chief financial officer. "With the separation of Kyndryl we now have taken the next step in the evolution of our strategy, creating value through focus and strengthening our financial profile."