Sign in / up

back to article Get your popcorn ready: IBM's Q3 financial scoreboard is out tonight

IBM might be pinning its ambitions on emerging tech, but some corners of Wall Street will be looking closely at legacy hardware sales when Big Blue reports its third-quarter results later today. "We expect a largely in-line Q3 '18 for IBM," said Bernstein partner Toni Sacconaghi. "A key determinant of quarterly results will be …

COMMENTS

Post your comment
House rules Send corrections
Add to 'My topics' unstar *
  1. K
    Devil

    News just in...

    During their results announcement, IBM shares dipped 7.8%.

    But on wrapping up, the CEO announcing a rebranding, changings its name IBcM, or Internal Blockchain and Macchiato. Which led to shares soaring by a whopping 10,000%

    3 0 Reply
    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: News just in...

      Given current news stories, I’m not sure if this is

      However, it’s IBM so...

      - no new hardware releases to prop up sales, so revenue will miss targets

      - cloud and other “growth businesses” will be stuffed with revenue from other areas to hide the lack of actual revenue.

      - GTS will continue to lose money as IBM fails to develop successful business partnerships. The failure will result in customers continuing to buy non-IBM solutions. IBM will address this by getting rid of more experienced staff and act surprised when the decline continues.

      - Ginny will somehow continue to manage to avoid any serious challenges to her path of destruction

      I’m unsure which year this was written for... Anything from 2013 onwards...

      2 0 Reply
  2. FozzyBear
    Flame

    PopCorn ?

    Triple Espresso to stay awake. IBM has no new tech. They've culled R&D, stripped bare tech support and pushed engineers out the door. Software updates and innovations have stalled. All for the immediate gratification of the bottom line.

    They could turn it around, profits are still in the $Bil per quarter, large investments into R&D would help. But unfortunately that only has the potential to help the future, it does not have the immediate effect of getting those brainless Muppets in the "C" suite earn their yearly bonuses

    IBM can no longer be considered tech company. Whilst they might try to make headlines with the occasional new release, more and more IBM will make headlines as they sink into the cesspit that is patent infringement

    0 0 Reply
    1. a_yank_lurker
      Reply Icon

      Re: PopCorn ?

      Itsy Bitsy Morons are slowly becoming a minor niche player in various markets with a couple niches (mainframes e.g.) where they are still the big kahuna. Growth, not really but a slide into obscurity.

      0 0 Reply
      1. Anonymous Coward
        Reply Icon
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: PopCorn ?

        Frankly I'm amazed and quite pleased that mainframes are still a thing! They can do some very cool things very well.

        Pity is that no-one seems to care to learn anymore. Why deploy something optimal but odd ball when you can do it sub-optimally using PC tech that you learned in kindergarten? I can remember years ago reading about how massive chunks of the South Korean banking system were migrated from a warehouse full of PC servers to a couple of IBM mainframe racks, all because of some clever hardware tricks.

        1 0 Reply
  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Analysts and guesswork

    So, the analysts predicted 19.2Bn, IBM achieved 18.8Bn. When are we going to realise that the analysts are guessing and, more importantly, getting it wrong most of the time? It is such a pointless exercise.

    0 0 Reply
    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Analysts and guesswork

      The analysts are usually pretty close (i if a company is being honest with them and the companies markets aren't going through any unexpected changes as effectively the analysts are just very well informed people (i.e. via industry reports) with more access to the companies investor relations team.

      When analysts provide a result (and generally there is consensus within 0.5%), the shares adjust accordingly. Get it wrong and the shares go up or down accordingly.

      The question is why IBM missed forecasts - is it deliberate (i.e. the precursor to a share buyback) or do they really just suck at running the company?

      0 0 Reply

POST COMMENT House rules

Not a member of The Register? Create a new account here.

Forgotten password ?

  • Enter your comment

  • Add an icon

Anonymous cowards cannot choose their icon

Other stories you might like