CBSMarketWatch: Earnings, outlook boost IBM shares; Linux strategy starting to pay off?

[ It is IBM policy not to break down revenues in the detail that would be necessary to determine how much, if any, Linux may have contributed to their bottom line this quarter; we can only speculate (and hope) that IBM's Linux support is beginning to show some bottom-line results - LT ed. ]

"Big Blue (IBM: news, msgs), a technology industry juggernaut that's recently struggled with sputtering sales in several of its key business lines, bucked the trend of disappointing earnings set by industry rival Hewlett-Packard and others. In light of IBM's sub-par third quarter, the company's numbers took analysts by surprise."

"...IBM met its sales goals. The company came through with revenue of $25.6 billion, up 6 percent from the year-ago quarter. Analysts from Goldman Sachs and other research firms expected IBM's revenue to increase by as little as 3 percent."

"Hardware sales were the big surprise -- the area where IBM struggled in 2000. The company reported better-than-expected growth in Unix servers -- a key competitive market. Personal computer sales were stronger than anticipated, with growth of about 15 percent. Also the company's profit-rich mainframe computer business, which drives services and software sales, increased revenue by about 30 percent, analysts said."

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