IBM 4Q09 Earnings Debrief

IBM just announced its 4Q09 earnings, and came in at $3.59 ESP, which was up 10% year-over-year (YOY).

That brought the full year to $10.01 EPS, up 13% YOY.

The 4Q of 09 rise was led by a number of factors, including strong gains in both hardware and software — on the hardware side, by increases on POWER, System x, Blades, and Storage, and in software, by WebSphere, Tivoli and IBM’s branded middleware.

The quarter also saw services signings of $18.8B (actual), and a PTI margin that was up 1.9 points YOY with $7.2B free cash flow.

For the full year, hardware strength included that mentioned above along with strong demand in Total Servers.

There was full year strength with IBM Software in branded middleware, with particular growth in the WebSphere, Tivoli, and Rational lines.

Services signings for the full year were $57B and included a $137B backlog, with IBM outsourcing signings growing up 9% YOY, and 11% at constant currency.

IBM’s full year PTI was up 2.8 points YOY, with a $15.1B free cash flow.

This made for IBM’s 7th consecutive year of double-digit EPS growth, and the expectation is that IBM will reach at least $11.00 EPS in 2010.

Click over to IBM Investor Relations to see more about IBM’s 2009 4Q and full year earnings.