“Helped by currency exchanges on the weak U.S. dollar and solid
growth across all divisions, IBM’s profit for the fourth quarter of
2004 jumped by 12 percent to $3.04 billion ($1.80 per share, up 16
percent over last year at the same time).“The results marked one of the strongest quarters ever for IBM,
whose quarterly profit passed the $3 billion mark for the first
time. Revenues rose by close to 7 percent to $27.7 billion in the
quarter, up 6.8 percent from revenues of $25.9 million during the
same time last year. Adjusting for currency exchanges, however,
IBM’s revenues were up by 3 percent…”