IBM Japan Ltd has finally added up its figures for 1990 and reports a rotten year with a 21% fall in pre-tax profits to the equivalent of $1,100m; net profits fell 19% at $590m and turnover rose just 1% to $9,448m. The profits fall is the worst in the company’s history – it was formed in 1950, and reported a 10% fall in pre-tax profits in 1986. The fall is being blamed on too great a stress on mainframes, where the fact that the company is between generations has hurt it, causing its share of the market to fall to 21% last year from 24% in 1989 according to Dataquest Japan. Observers believe that IBM’s figures are the first indication of a general weakness in the Japanese mainframe market – its competitors closed their books on March 31 and won’t report figures for several weeks. IBM Japan is also behind its siblings in other countries, with total business disproportionately skewed to mainframes. It is weak in mid-range systems and very weak in personal computers.
