In IBM's view, today's networked economy has created a global business landscape and a mandate for business change. Integrated global economies have opened markets of new opportunity and new sources of skills. The Internet has enabled communication and collaboration across the world and brought with it a new computing model premised on continuous global connection. In that landscape, companies can distribute work and technology anywhere in the world.
Given these opportunities, IBM is working with its clients to develop new business designs and technical architectures that allow their businesses the flexibility required to compete in this new landscape. The business is also adjusting its footprint toward emerging geographies, tapping their double-digit growth, providing the technology infrastructure they need, and taking advantage of the talent pools they provide to better service the company’s clients.
Our Values
Our values as IBMers shape everything we do, every choice we make on behalf of this company. Having a shared set of values helps us make decisions and, in the process, makes our company great. But their real influence occurs when we apply these values to our personal work and our interactions with one another and the wider world. IBMers determined that our actions will be driven by these values:
- Dedication to every client's success
- Innovation that matters, for our company and for the world
- Trust and personal responsibility in all relationships
Who we're with
IBM's clients include many different kinds of enterprises, from sole proprietorships to the world's largest organizations, governments and companies representing every major industry and endeavor.
The majority of the company's enterprise business, which excludes the company's original equipment manufacturer (OEM) technology business, occurs in industries that are broadly grouped into six sectors:
- Financial Services: Banking, Financial Markets, Insurance
- Public: Education, Government, Healthcare, Life Sciences
- Industrial: Aerospace, Automotive, Defense, Chemical and Petroleum, Electronics
- Distribution: Consumer Products, Retail, Travel, Transportation
- Communications: Telecommunications, Media and Entertainment, Energy and Utilities
- Small and Medium Business: Mainly companies with less than 1,000 employees
Who we are
To reach a media relations specialist at IBM, use the Media Contacts link on the left side of this page. To reach any other IBM employee, use the link below.
Fast facts
- Revenue for 2008 was a record $103.6 billion, up 5 percent. In 2008 pre-tax income from continuing operations rose 15 percent, to $16.7 billion, the highest ever.
- In 2008 free cash flow, excluding the year-to-year change in Global Financing receivables, was $14.3 billion, an increase of $1.9 billion from 2007. IBM ended 2008 with $12.9 billion of cash and marketable securities.
- In 2008 IBM’s gross profit margin rose for the fifth consecutive year – to 44.1 percent, up 7.6 points since 2003. Our pre-tax income margin rose to 16.1 percent. Both margins are at their highest in more than a decade. Diluted earnings per share from continuing operations in 2008 were $8.93, up 24 percent. This marked six straight years of double-digit EPS growth.
- IBM’s 2008 cash investment was $6.3 billion for 15 acquisitions – 10 of them in key areas of software. And after investing $6.3 billion in R&D and $4.5 billion in net capital expenditures, we were able to return more than $13 billion to shareholders -- $10.6 billion through share repurchase and $2.6 billion through dividends.
- Of the more than 4,000 U.S. patents IBM received in 2008 (our 16th straight year of patent leadership), more than 70 percent were for software and services.
- IBM has divested commoditizing business like personal computers and hard disk drives, and strengthened its position through strategic investment and acquisitions in higher-value segments like business intelligence and analytics, virtualization and green solutions.
- At the end of 2008 IBM had 398,455 employees worldwide, an increase of almost 12,000 from 2007.
- IBM operates in more than 170 countries and enjoys an increasing broad-based geographic reach. Our non-U.S. operations generated approximately 65 percent of IBM’s revenue in 2008. IBM’s Growth Markets unit, which was established in 2008, grew 10 percent and made up 18 percent of our revenues.
- All around the world, businesses, governments and institutions are investing to reduce costs, drive innovation and transform their infrastructure. The economic downturn has intensified this trend, as leaders seek not simply to repair what is broken, but to prepare for a 21st Century economy. Many of their key priorities are in areas where IBM has leading solutions – such as smarter utility grids, traffic, healthcare, financial systems, telecommunications and cities. We are aggressively pursuing this transformational, global opportunity.
Business operations summary
Our business model is built to support two principal goals: helping our clients succeed in delivering business value by becoming more efficient and competitive through the use of business insight and information technology solutions; and providing long-term value to our shareholders. In support of these objectives, our business model has been developed over time through strategic investments in services and technologies that have the best long-term growth and profitability prospects based on the value they deliver to clients. And inherent in the model is a commitment to employees and the communities in which we operate.
