IBM Espana is a bit miffed at local press coverage of its 1988 figures with the 13% drop in exports (CI No 1,126), pointing out that on the basis of its business in Spain, it is still the IBM European subsidiary with the best overall results and is far from being at a standstill. Analysts […]
IBM Espana is a bit miffed at local press coverage of its 1988 figures with the 13% drop in exports (CI No 1,126), pointing out that on the basis of its business in Spain, it is still the IBM European subsidiary with the best overall results and is far from being at a standstill. Analysts should not, according to company sources, mix national figures with those for export over which IBM-Espana has less control. We should also look at the results over a longer period of time. For example, between 1983 and 1988 IBM doubled its sales in Spain to $1,130m in 1988 from $505m in 1983, and turnover figures for the internal market last year were up 16% on 1987 or 45% if expressed in actual units sold. As regards products, the AS/400 sold better in the first three months after its launch than any personal computer has done, and sales of PS/2 went up 50%, reaching 51,000 systems installed. IBM Espana has also gained contracts as a collaborative partner in computer technology from the Barcelona Olympic Committee and from Expo’92, while its International Software Development Centre in Barcelona which specialises in developing applications for banks, won contracts with 275 financial institutions last year and sold 30,000 copies of its products. The company also set up a Language Technology Centre in Seville for research into Spanish natural language and spoken technology related processes, and increased its overall staff by 237 to 4,342, mainly in the marketing and client support areas. A basic point of consolidation for 1989 will be the software for the PS/2 systems, but IBM Espana can also expect to strengthen its telecommunications division in the wake of sale of most of Rolm Corp to Siemens AG by distributing the Munchener’s Hicom 300 via its marketing network once the telecommunications liberalisation law is finalised.
