For its first financial report since the separation of its Kyndryl managed services activity, IBM did not miss the boat by presenting positive results driven above all by the dynamism of its hybrid cloud activity. Big Blue indeed recorded a 6.5% increase in its turnover in the fourth quarter of 2021, to 16.7 billion dollars.
This is a good performance, while the markets were counting on a turnover of 15.98 billion dollars. The American giant owes this resurgence to its hybrid cloud activity, whose revenues amounted to $ 6.2 billion in the last quarter of 2021, figures up 16% year on year.
Full-year hybrid cloud revenue was $20.2 billion, up 20%. “We grew revenue in the fourth quarter as hybrid cloud adoption drove software and consulting growth,” Group CEO Arvind Krishna said in a statement.
Forecasts more optimistic than expected
“Our fourth quarter results give us confidence in our ability to achieve our objectives of sustained mid-single-digit revenue growth and high free cash flow in 2022,” he said. As IBM shed its managed services business in 2021, it has also made a number of investments to strengthen its focus on artificial intelligence (AI) and hybrid cloud.
“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. , SVP and CFO of IBM, in a press release.
IBM changed its reporting segments in the fourth quarter, breaking down results for software (which includes hybrid platforms and solutions and transaction processing), consulting (business transformation, technology consulting and application operations), infrastructure (hybrid infrastructure, infrastructure support) and financing (customer and business financing).
Software is popular
In the fourth quarter, software generated $7.3 billion in revenue, up 8.2% and 10.1% at constant currency (including approximately 5 additional external Kyndryl outlets ). Within software, hybrid platforms and solutions grew by 7%. This includes Red Hat (+19%), Automation (+13%), Data & AI (+1%) and Security (-2%).
IBM’s Software Transaction Processing business saw revenue growth of 11%, while hybrid cloud software segment revenue increased 22%. IBM’s consulting business generated fourth-quarter revenue of $4.7 billion, up 13.1%. In this category, business transformation increased by 18%. Technology consulting grew by 14%. Enforcement operations increased by 6%. Revenue in the hybrid cloud consulting segment increased by 31%.
Infrastructure revenue in the fourth quarter was $4.4 billion, down 0.2% and up 1.7% at constant currency (including approximately five external outlets supplements to Kyndryl). Within the category, hybrid infrastructure was flat – IBM Z sales were down 65%, and distributed infrastructure was up 5%.
Source: ZDNet.com