Microsoft slips to the third from last year’s position at the top
IBM has become the world’s second most valuable technology company, overtaking Microsoft for the first time since 1996.
Big Blue’s rise to the second spot, behind Apple, was because of a combination of factors. Yesterday, as IBM’s market grew to $214bn, Microsoft’s fell to $213.2bn, according to Bloomberg. IBM has gained 22% this year, while Microsoft has dropped 8.8%, said the report.
IBM, which recently celebrated its 100th anniversary, has now become the fourth-largest company by market value. Among technology companies, IBM is behind Apple, the world’s most valuable company.
Last year, Apple overtook Microsoft in market value last year. Apple’s market capitalisation is now $362.1bn.
Earlier this year, IBM reported net earnings growth of 8% to $3.7bn. IBM has raised its full-year operating earnings per share expectations after reporting 12% surge in second-quarter revenues and 8% growth in net income.
In its Q2 2011 results, the 100-year-old company registered total revenues of $26.7bn, an increase of 12%. Net income reached $3.7bn, compared with $3.4bn in Q2 2010.
IBM chairman president and chief executive officer Sam Palmisano has said that long-term strategic investments in the company’s growth initiatives again helped drive strong revenue performance.
Palmisano added: "Hardware, software and services revenue grew at double digits, and we achieved strong profit and free cash flow growth. As IBM begins its second century, we continue a process of transformation, positioning the company to lead in the future and deliver higher value to our clients and our shareholders. Given our strong start to 2011, we are raising our full-year operating earnings per share expectations to at least $13.25."
The company’s mainframe business saw robust growth registering a 61% surge last quarter.
Chief financial officer Mark Loughridge told the Financial Times that the 68 new mainframe customers would add to the company’s other business such as services and software.
"Goodness gracious, when you’re up 61 per cent, that’s a pretty powerful quarter in the mainframe business," he said.
Both software and hardware sales rose 17% compared with the same period of last year, to $6.2bn and $4.7bn respectively.
While Power Systems revenue grew 12%, the company said its business analytics revenue also grew more than 20% in the first half.
The company’s Smarter Planet revenue was up more than 50% in the first half and IBM said its cloud-computing revenue is on track to double in 2011.
Growth markets represented over a fifth of IBM’s total geographic revenue.
