APB acusa Concorrência de lançar consulta enviesada e com "resultados predeterminados"

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No meio de tanto cinzento muito escuro, um "quantum of solace":

I.B.M. Tops Forecasts and Expects a Good 2009

I.B.M. reported a solid 12 percent gain in quarterly profits on Tuesday, bucking the trend of steep declines for many technology companies amid the economic downturn.

I.B.M. is seen as a bellwether of global technology spending among corporations. Yet its strong performance in the fourth quarter, analysts say, mainly points to the success of I.B.M.’s strategy in recent years to increasingly tilt toward software and services, and reduce its reliance on the computer hardware business, which suffers worst in down economic cycles.

The company’s hardware sales did drop 20 percent in the fourth quarter, but that weakness was more than made up for by solid results from the company’s far larger services and software groups.

Samuel J. Palmisano, I.B.M.’s chief executive, said in a statement that “a strong fourth quarter capped an outstanding year.” Despite the global economic turmoil, he expressed confidence that the company could reach its earnings goals for 2009, of at least $9.20 a share for the year.

I.B.M. reported net income of $4.4 billion, a 12 percent gain from a year earlier. Its quarterly earnings reached $3.28 a share, well above Wall Street’s consensus of $3.03 a share.

The company reported quarterly revenue of $27 billion, down 6 percent, reflecting the weakness in hardware sales and a stronger dollar. Adjusted for currency, revenue slipped 1 percent.

I.B.M. has so far sidestepped the worst of the slump in corporate technology spending, after the credit crisis hit hard last fall. In the fourth quarter, earnings for the 75 technology companies in the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index are expected to drop 19 percent, according to analysts’ forecasts compiled by Thomson Reuters. That is a sharp retreat from the Wall Street consensus in early October, when analysts forecast that profit in the technology sector would rise 8 percent in the fourth quarter.

“I.B.M. is an exception,” said John Butters, director of United States earnings research at Thomson Reuters.

Last week, the giant chip maker Intel reported that its profit fell 90 percent in the fourth quarter. Other technology suppliers like Seagate Technology, the largest maker of disk drives, and Advanced Micro-Devices, a chip maker, have announced salary cuts and layoffs because of rapid deterioration in business.

I.B.M. has held up better than most of its peers, in part because of its global reach and its mix of businesses. An estimated 40 percent of its revenues and 60 percent of its profit come from products and services sold on a subscription basis as licenses or contracts that are typically renewed every year or so. Such annuity businesses include mainframe software and technology services that animate customers’ essential operations like billing, procurement and customer relations. Most companies do not regard these as discretionary purchases that can be easily jettisoned, even in bad times.