Bob Moffat, the high-ranking, kilt-wearing IBM executive arrested in the Galleon insider-trading case, has traded his temporary leave of absence for a permanent one. According to a brief message posted to IBM’s internal Web site, Moffat, head of IBM’s Systems and Technology Group, has left the company in the wake of the Galleon affair.
IBM continues to be one of the econalypse’s success stories. This afternoon, the company beat analyst expectations, posting a third-quarter profit of $3.2 billion, or $2.40 a share, on revenue of $23.6 billion. Net income was $3.2 billion, up 14 percent from year-ago earnings of $2.8 billion.
According to IDC, the worldwide market for business analytics software will swell to $25 billion this year. Little wonder, then, that IBM is beefing up its presence in that sector with the $1.2 billion acquisition of data analysis software maker SPSS. Business analytics powerhouse SAS best watch its back.
IBM had a very good second quarter, all things considered. The company reported earnings that trounced analysts’ estimates and raised its full-year earnings forecast. Earnings were $2.32 per share, up from $1.97 per share in the same period last year, and well above the $2.02 per share the Street was looking for.
“We are not like the other companies in the IT industry.” This from IBM CEO Sam Palmisano, who said at an investors meeting in New York City today that the company is weathering the econalypse better than most.
The ax is indeed swinging at Big Blue. Following reports that it is preparing to cut thousands of jobs in its global services unit, IBM said Thursday it has begun notifying employees of what it likes to euphemistically refer to as “resource actions.” IBM refused to disclose the number of employees affected, but
Lee Conrad, spokesman for a union group called Alliance@IBM, said at least 1,674 in the company’s Application Services unit will lose their jobs.
When IBM CEO Sam Palmisano advised the Obama transition team that the $30 billion in information-technology stimulus handouts Big Blue is angling for could create more than 900,000 new jobs, he didn’t say they’d be created in India. Yet, apparently that’s the case. IBM is reportedly planning to sack “a large number” of employees in its Global Business Services division, shifting their duties overseas to workers in India.
Whatever does not kill us will make us stronger. That’s the view of IBM CEO Sam Palmisano, who says the recession will not do to Big Blue what it is doing to so many others. In an exuberant letter to shareholders today, Palmisano wrote that IBM will not cower before the current economic turmoil.
Thank God for IBM. The technology bellwether gave battered investors a chance to catch their breath Thursday after it said it expects to report a 20 percent increase in net income for its third quarter and, remarkably, claimed its profit outlook for the full year remains on track.
John Paczkowski has been poking fun at the tech industry and the personalities that drive it since 1997. From 1999 to 2007, he wrote the award-winning tech news Web log Good Morning Silicon Valley for the San Jose Mercury News, Silicon Valley's daily newspaper. Read more »
Here is a statement of my ethics and coverage policies. It is more than most of you want to know, but, in the age of suspicion of the media, I am laying it all out.
While the technology behind the Telephone is new, the design is reassuringly old-fashioned, reminiscent of a phrenologist’s horn or ear-candle in form. We found the experience far more comfortable than the one we had with the Telegraph.
12:58 AM: Breakfast: Two schools of fish from Tokyo Bay. Calories: 782,000. How I was feeling when I ate this: confused, irradiated, hating my size.
11:37 AM: Exercise: “Taxi Stomp” (alternating legs, for 30 blocks). Calories burned: 148,900,183.
1983. The Beatles announce their first tour in thirteen years, but likewise announce that Michael Jackson will be going on tour with them as a one gigantic mega-concert event.
Best video mashup ever.
A Facebook Memorial
Wow.
Worth it for the Rickrolling photo alone.
Excellent.
Flughumor!
… you vacuous, toffee-nosed, malodorous perverts
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