No News Is Bad News

So how was your weekend?

Roger Federer’s was pretty doggone good, having taken out Scotland’s Andy Murray yesterday in the Wimbledon finals.

South Korea’s Na Yeon Choi also had a pretty good weekend.  She took victory in the U.S. Women’s Open golf championship at Blackwolf Run in Kohler, Wisconsin.

That was, by the way, the very same course where Se Ri Pak won the Open in 1998, a breakthrough that inspired a generation of South Korean women golfers (who, by the way, have won 4 out of the last 5 U.S. Opens).

Many congratulations to Na Yeon Choi on her victory.

My weekend wasn’t too bad, either.  I got to play a new golf course out in the Texas hill country, in Blanco, where I also attended a benefit concert headlined by Edie Brickell and New Bohemians.

You may remember Edie and New Bohemians from their breakout 1988 hit “Shooting Rubberbands at the Stars,” but Edie and the “New Bo’s” were musical favorites in and around my hometown of Denton, Texas, long before they jetted off to musical stardom.

If you’ve not followed Edie’s own solo career, you’re missing out on some great tunes (try 2003’s “Volcano”).  Hard to believe it’d been nearly a quarter-century since Edie and the New Bo’s hit the big time — we Dentonites still remember their pre-fame performance at the 1988 Fry Street Fair, with Edie’s hair blowing freely in the breeze and their lyrical music sauntering freely up Oak Street without a care in the world.

Ah, the good ol’ days.

But, Turbo, you say, please tell me something relevant about the information technology industry!  It’s Monday, what’s going on?!

Okay, okay, I’m getting to that.  It is Monday, and it’s summer, and I’m off to a slow start, for Pete’s sake!

First and foremost, news from Gartner this A.M. suggesting that worldwide IT spending is on pace to reach $3.6 trillion in 2012, a 3 percent increase over last year’s $3.5 trillion.

Yes, despite the woes in Europe and minor slowdown in Asia, IT spending is going up, and in fact, Gartner revised its numbers to 3 percent growth from 2.5 percent last quarter.

Gartner describes this IT spending environment as “continued caution,” but highlights some strong spots: Public cloud services, for example, which is expected to hit $109 billion in spending this year, and $207 billion by 2016.

IT services spending grew a little more anemically year-over-year, coming in at 2.3 percent to reach $864 billion this year.

Meanwhile, no major outcries from the impacts of the DNSChanger servers being run by the FBI going offline.  PC World’s story this AM has the F-Secure blog estimating about 47K computers still affected in the U.S., and about 20K in India.

So, no news is good news (See more about this from last week’s blog post.)

Of course, no news may soon become a more common occurrence than we care to realize.  Read this piece from the NY Times’ David Carr on the dismal outlook for daily newspapers.

Just don’t have any sharp objects close by when you do, especially if you’re a news junkie like myself.

IBM 3Q 2011 Earnings: Revenue Up 8%

IBM’s earnings for third quarter 2011 just came across the wire.

Here’s the topline:

• • Diluted EPS:
    • GAAP: $3.19, up 13 percent;
    • Operating (non-GAAP): $3.28, up 15 percent;
  • Revenue: $26.2 billion, up 8 percent, up 3 percent adjusting for currency;
  • Net income:
    • GAAP: $3.8 billion, up 7 percent;
    • Operating (non-GAAP): $4.0 billion, up 9 percent;
  • Pre-tax income:
    • GAAP: $5.0 billion, up 7 percent;
    • Operating (non-GAAP): $5.2 billion, up 10 percent;
  • Gross profit margin:
    • GAAP: 46.5 percent, up 1.2 points;
    • Operating (non-GAAP): 46.8 percent, up 1.5 points;
  • Software revenue up 13 percent, 8 percent adjusting for currency;
  • Services revenue up 8 percent, 2 percent adjusting for currency;
    • Services backlog of $137 billion, up $2.4 billion;
  • Systems and Technology revenue up 4 percent, 1 percent adjusting for currency:
    • Power Systems up 15 percent;
  • Growth markets revenue up 19 percent, 13 percent adjusting for currency;
  • Business analytics revenue up 19 percent year to date;
  • Smarter Planet revenue up 50 percent year to date;
  • Cloud revenue year to date has doubled full-year 2010 revenue;
  • Full-year 2011 Operating (non-GAAP) EPS expectations raised to at least $13.35 from at least $13.25.

IBM today announced third-quarter 2011 diluted earnings of $3.19 per share, compared with diluted earnings of $2.82 per share in the third quarter of 2010, an increase of 13 percent. Operating (non-GAAP) diluted earnings were $3.28 per share, compared with operating diluted earnings of $2.85 per share in the third quarter of 2010, an increase of 15 percent.

Third-quarter net income was $3.8 billion compared with $3.6 billion in the third quarter of 2010, an increase of 7 percent. Operating (non-GAAP) net income was $4.0 billion compared with $3.6 billion in the third quarter of 2010, an increase of 9 percent.

Total revenues for the third quarter of 2011 of $26.2 billion increased 8 percent (3 percent, adjusting for currency) from the third quarter of 2010.

“In the third quarter, we drove revenue growth, margin expansion and increased earnings as a result of our innovation-based strategy and continued investment in growth initiatives,” said Samuel J. Palmisano, IBM chairman, president and chief executive officer. “Growth markets delivered outstanding revenue performance across software, hardware, and services and contributed to the company’s expanded margins. We also achieved strong results in Smarter Planet, business analytics and cloud.