With its third quarter figures (see below), IBM Corp has stopped the rot of profit declines, but the figures are hardly exciting by comparison with those of rivals like NCR Corp, also below, and as well as the windfall gain from its Intel shares, the company notes that the lower value of the dollar compared with 1986 was good for $295m on net profits and $2,015m on turnover. Without that, therefore, the company would have recorded yet another profit de-cline. Breaking the figures down, sales in the third quarter were up 9.2% at $8,434m, maintenance was down 0.8% at $1,885m, and income from program products rose 20.2% at $1,620m. Rental and other service income fell 15.7% to $788m. In the nine months, sales were up 6.5% to $23,444m; maintenance rose 4.8% to $5,764m; program products rose 21.8% to $4,553m; rentals and other services fell 19.9% to $2,445m. The effects of our cost and expense actions, coupled with significant resource reductions, are beginning to be reflected in our operating results, commented IBM chairman John Akers.
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