Breaking down IBM Corp’s second quarter figures, hardware sales pluned 12.9% to $7,526m, software business grew marginally, up 1.2% to $2,715m, but maintenance slipped 2.3% to $1,875m. Services leaped 26.6% to $2,352m, although there is no confidence that IBM makes money on this business, and rentals and financing fell 6.3% to $1,069m.Costs rose 14.2% to $9,545m and gross profit fell 24% to $5,974m. On the staff cuts, IBM said that, as of year-to-date, approximately 50,000 employees have left or are committed to leave the company in 1993 on a worldwide basis, and that the new actions will result in a further decline of about 35,000. The company did see some areas of improvement over the first quarter. Customers responded positively to our decision to become increasingly responsive and competitive in our high-end pricing, IBM said, and the personal computer and workstation businesses continued to do well. Customers responded favourably to new high-end models of the AS/400 that IBM began shipping in the quarter, but AS/400 revenues declined in the second quarter compared with the same period of 1992, albeit at a slower rate than in the first quarter. Personal computer revenues rose strongly compared with 1992’s second quarter, and in the second quarter the IBM Personal Computer company again was profitable. Revenues from IBM’s workstation family, the RS/6000, also grew in the quarter, although clearly not by much because the company would otherwise be crowing.
