IBM reported a decrease in annual revenues between 2008 and 2009, but revenues for the most recent quarter held steady. Overall, the company reports, revenues for 2009 totaled $95.8 billion, a decrease of 8% (5%, adjusting for currency), compared with $103.6 billion in 2008.
IBM announced revenues for the fourth quarter of 2009 of $27.2 billion, up 1% from the fourth quarter of 2008. However, the company reported drops in mainframe sales.
Revenues from the Systems and Technology segment totaled $5.2 billion for the fourth quarter, down 4% from the fourth quarter of 2008-but an improvement in the year-to-year revenue growth rate compared with the third quarter of 2009, IBM says. Systems revenues decreased 5%, while revenues from System z mainframe server products decreased 27% compared with the year-ago period. Total delivery of System z computing power, which is measured in MIPS (millions of instructions per second), decreased 19%.
Revenues from the System x servers increased 37% between the final quarter of 2008 and 2009. Revenues from the converged System p products decreased 14% compared with the 2008 period. Revenues from System Storage increased 1%, and revenues from Retail Store Solutions decreased 5%.
During the recent quarter, total Global Services revenues increased 2%, while Global Technology Services segment revenues increased 4% to $10.1 billion. Global Business Services segment revenues decreased 3%, to $4.6 billion. IBM says it signed services contracts totaling $18.8 billion during the final quarter of 2009, an increase of 9%, including 22 contracts greater than $100 million.
Revenues from the Software segment were $6.6 billion in the most recent quarter, an increase of 2% compared with the fourth quarter of 2008. Revenues from IBM's key middleware products, which include WebSphere, Information Management, Tivoli, Lotus and Rational products, were $4.1 billion, an increase of 6% versus the fourth quarter of 2008. Revenues from the WebSphere family of software products increased 13% for the quarter year over year. Revenues from Information Management software increased 7%. Revenues from Tivoli software increased 7%, and Lotus revenues decreased 5%. Revenues from Rational software decreased 4%.
For the entire 2009 fiscal year, revenues from the Global Technology Services segment totaled $37.3 billion, a decrease of 5% compared with 2008. Revenues for the Systems and Technology group totaled $16.1 billion for 2009, down 16% from 2008. Revenues from the Global Business Services segment were $17.7 billion, down 10%. Total services signings were $57.1 billion. Software segment revenues in 2009 totaled $21.4 billion, a decrease of 3%. IBM did not provide annual 2009 revenue breakdowns for mainframes or other server lines.
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