Amidst sales efforts, IBM posts a weak Q3

Operating (non-GAAP) net income from continuing operations was USD 3.7 billion, as compared with USD 4.5 billion in the third-quarter of 2013, a decrease of 18 percent. For the third-quarter of 2014, IBM reported consolidated net income of USD 18 million, which includes a net loss from discontinued operations of USD 3.4 billion. Total revenues from continuing operations for the third-quarter of 2014 of USD 22.4 billion were down 4 percent (down 2 percent, adjusting for the impact of the divested customer care outsourcing business and for currency) from the third-quarter of 2013. “We are disappointed in our performance. We saw a marked slowdown in September in client buying behavior, and our results also point to the unprecedented pace of change in our industry. While we did not produce the results we expected to achieve, we again performed well in our strategic growth areas – cloud, data and analytics, security, social and mobile - where we continue to shift our business. We will accelerate this transformation,” said Ginni Rometty, IBM chairman, president and chief executive officer. “We are executing on a clear strategy that is moving IBM to higher value, and we've taken significant actions to exit nonstrategic elements of the business. This includes the announcement that we will divest semiconductor manufacturing to focus on research and development that will differentiate our systems. We will continue to make the investments and the changes necessary to manage our business for the long term. And we remain fully committed to returning significant value to shareholders through dividends and share repurchase." IBM confirms the sale of chip business The results from continuing operations exclude discontinued Microelectronics business, to be acquired by Globalfoundries. IBM and Globalfoundries have signed a Definitive Agreement under which Globalfoundries plans to acquire IBM's global commercial semiconductor technology business, including intellectual property and technologies related to IBM Microelectronics.