IBM announced bullish fourth-quarter and 2010 year-end results for software and solutions sales, marking an acceleration in the resurgence from the recent economic slump.
The company said its fourth-quarter net income was $5.3 billion, an increase of 9% over $4.8 billion in the fourth quarter of 2009. Total revenues for the fourth quarter of 2010 were $29 billion, an increase of 7%.
Revenues from System z mainframe server products increased 69% compared with the year-ago period. Total delivery of System z computing power, as measured in MIPS (millions of instructions per second), increased 58%.
Overall, revenues from the Systems and Technology segment totaled $6.3 billion for the quarter, up 21% from the fourth quarter of 2009. Systems and Technology pre-tax income was $1.2 billion, an increase of 45%. Revenues from System x increased 18%. Revenues from Power Systems increased 2% compared with the 2009 period; entry systems revenues were up 30% and midrange systems grew 7%. Revenues from System Storage increased 8%, and revenues from Retail Store Solutions increased 26% year over year. Revenues from Microelectronics OEM increased 30%.
For the entire fiscal year which ended on December 31, 2010, net income was $14.8 billion, compared with $13.4 billion in the year-ago period, an increase of 10%. Revenues for 2010 totaled $99.9 billion, an increase of 4%, compared with $95.8 billion in 2009. Software segment revenues in 2010 totaled $22.5 billion, an increase of 5%. Systems and Technology segment revenues were $18.0 billion, an increase of 11%.
Revenues from the Software segment were $7.0 billion, an increase of 7% over the fourth quarter of 2009. Software pre-tax income of $3.2 billion increased 4% year over year. Revenues from IBM's key middleware products, which include WebSphere, Information Management, Tivoli, Lotus and Rational products, were $4.7 billion, an increase of 13% versus the fourth quarter of 2009. Operating systems revenues of $690 million increased 11% compared with the prior-year quarter.
Revenues from the WebSphere family of software products increased 32% year over year. Information Management software revenues increased 10%, and revenues from Tivoli software increased 12%. Revenues from Lotus software decreased 3%, and Rational software increased 10%. Revenues from the company's business analytics operations across services and software segments increased 19%.
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