"We are well-positioned to continue to move aggressively and leverage our strong cash performance to make the most of the opportunities that arise, including smarter planet initiatives and other strategic options. We remain ahead of pace for our 2010 roadmap of $10 to $11 per share."
IBM said that it expects full-year 2009 earnings of at least $9.20 per share.
From a geographic perspective, the Americas' first-quarter revenues were $9.3 billion, a decrease of 7 percent (3 percent, adjusting for currency) from the 2008 period. Revenues from Europe/Middle East/Africa were $7.2 billion, down 18 percent (3 percent, adjusting for currency). Asia-Pacific revenues decreased 6 percent (3 percent, adjusting for currency) to $4.8 billion. OEM revenues were $461 million, down 34 percent compared with the 2008 first quarter. Revenues from the company's growth markets organization decreased 12 percent (up 4 percent, adjusting for currency) and represented 17 percent of geographic revenues.
Total Global Services revenues decreased 10 percent (2 percent, adjusting for currency). Global Technology Services segment revenues decreased 10 percent (1 percent, adjusting for currency) to $8.8 billion. Global Business Services segment revenues decreased 10 percent (4 percent, adjusting for currency) to $4.4 billion. IBM signed services contracts totaling $12.5 billion, at actual rates, a decrease of 1 percent (up 10 percent, adjusting for currency), including 16 contracts greater than $100 million. Shorter-term signings were $5.5 billion, a decrease of 14 percent (5 percent, adjusting for currency). Longer-term signings increased 14 percent (27 percent, adjusting for currency) to $7.0 billion. The estimated services backlog at March 31 was $126 billion at actual rates compared with $130 billion at year-end 2008.
Revenues from the Software segment were $4.5 billion, a decrease of 6 percent (up 2 percent, adjusting for currency) compared with the first quarter of 2008; pre-tax income increased 5 percent. Revenues from IBM's middleware products, which primarily include WebSphere, Information Management, Tivoli, Lotus and Rational products, were $3.6 billion, a decrease of 5 percent (up 4 percent, adjusting for currency) versus the first quarter of 2008. Operating systems revenues of $492 million decreased 7 percent (flat, adjusting for currency) compared with the prior-year quarter.
For the WebSphere family of software products, which facilitate customers' ability to manage a wide variety of business processes using open standards to interconnect applications, data and operating systems, revenues increased 5 percent year over year. Revenues from Information Management software, which enables clients to leverage information on demand, decreased 8 percent. Revenues from Tivoli software, infrastructure software that enables clients to centrally manage networks including security and storage capability, decreased 1 percent, and revenues from Lotus software, which allows collaborating and messaging by clients in real-time communication and knowledge management, decreased 12 percent. Revenues from Rational software, integrated tools to improve the processes of software development, increased 9 percent.
Revenues from the Systems and Technology segment totaled $3.2 billion for the quarter, down 23 percent (18 percent, adjusting for currency). Systems revenues decreased 22 percent (15 percent, adjusting for currency). Revenues from the converged System p products decreased 2 percent compared with the 2008 period. Revenues from System z mainframe server products decreased 19 percent compared with the year-ago period. Total delivery of System z computing power, which is measured in MIPS (millions of instructions per second), increased 18 percent. Revenues from the System x servers decreased 27 percent. Revenues from System Storage decreased 20 percent, and revenues from Retail Store Solutions decreased 38 percent. Revenues from Microelectronics OEM decreased 36 percent.
Global Financing segment revenues decreased 9 percent (flat, adjusting for currency) in the first quarter to $578 million.
The company's total gross profit margin was 43.4 percent in the 2009 first quarter compared with 41.5 percent in the 2008 first-quarter period, led by improving margins in services and software.
Total expense and other income decreased 9 percent to $6.3 billion compared with the prior-year period. SG&A expense decreased 6 percent to $5.3 billion including workforce rebalancing charges of approximately $265 million. RD&E expense of $1.5 billion decreased 6 percent compared with the year-ago period. Intellectual property and custom development income decreased to $268 million compared with $274 million a year ago. Other (income) and expense was income of $304 million including a net gain of $298 million relating to the sale of certain elements of the company's logistics process, compared with income of $125 million from a year ago. Interest expense decreased to $136 million compared with $178 million in the prior year.
IBM's tax rate in the first-quarter 2009 was 26.5 percent compared with 27.5 percent in the first quarter of 2008, a decline of 1.0 point.
The weighted-average number of diluted common shares outstanding in the first-quarter 2009 was 1.35 billion compared with 1.41 billion shares in the same period of 2008. As of March 31, 2009, there were 1.32 billion basic common shares outstanding.
Debt, including Global Financing, totaled $31.0 billion, compared with $33.9 billion at year-end 2008. From a management segment view, Global Financing debt decreased $1.0 billion from year-end 2008 to a total of $23.4 billion at March 31, 2009, resulting in a debt-to-equity ratio of 7.0 to 1. Non-global financing debt totaled $7.6 billion, a decrease of $1.9 billion since year-end 2008, resulting in a debt-to-capitalization ratio of 42.4 percent from 48.7 percent, which reflects the adoption of SFAS No. 160 referenced in the Consolidated Statement of Financial Position.
IBM ended the first quarter of 2009 with $12.3 billion of cash on hand and generated free cash flow of $1.0 billion, up $450 million year over year, excluding Global Financing receivables. The company returned nearly $2.5 billion to shareholders through $675 million in dividends and $1.8 billion of share repurchases. The balance sheet remains strong, and the company is well positioned to take advantage of opportunities.
Editor's Note: The company included the required "forward-looking and cautionary statements" with this release as well as an explanation of why it includes non-GAAP information, which management deems useful to investors. The complete press release is available online here.
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