Fourth-quarter 2000 net income was $2.7 billion, a 28 percent increase from the year-earlier period. IBM’s fourth-quarter 2000 revenues totaled $25.6 billion, an increase of 6 percent (12 percent at constant currency) compared with the fourth quarter of 1999. For full-year 2000, IBM’s diluted earnings per common share grew 19 percent, to $4.44, while net income increased 16 percent to $8.1 billion comparedwith full-year 1999 (after excluding an after-tax net benefit from the sale of the IBM Global Network and other 1999 actions).
Louis V. Gerstner, Jr., IBM chairman and chief executive officer, said: We had a very solid fourth quarter which, in many respects, reflects momentum that was
building steadily all year. On one level, this momentum is due to strong execution, and we have increased our market share in many of our most strategic product areas. More significantly, this momentum is a strong affirmation of the strategies we put in place three years ago. Those strategies start with three premises: the marketplace is increasingly driven by services and solutions, not products; the marketplace is now driven by powerful, scalable servers, not PCs; and success will require open, heterogeneous platforms.
