China drags down IBM as bosses wave goodbye to bonuses

Chinese revenue down 23 per cent in Q4

A disappointing performance in emerging markets and China has dragged down IBM's fourth quarter revenues, which missed Wall Street expectations by $560m and prompted its top dogs to forgo their bonuses.

For the three months to 31 December, IBM's like-for-like net income rose six per cent to $6.2bn (£3.76bn) on sales which slumped five per cent annually to $27.7bn - missing analysts' forecast of $28.26bn.

For the whole of 2013, its sales slipped by five per cent to $99.8bn while its net income fell one per cent to $16.2bn.

IBM partly blamed its Q4 sales slump on poor-performing emerging markets and China, where sales slipped 23 per cent year on year.

In the last quarter, its Americas sales fell three per cent annually to $12.2bn while EMEA performed best after sales there crept up one per cent to $9.2bn.

But in the Asia Pacific region, revenue crashed 16 per cent to just $5.9bn, something IBM labelled "disappointing."

"From a geographic perspective, performance in growth markets was mixed, though disappointing overall," said IBM's chief financial officer Martin Schroeter. " Looking at our two largest regions, Asia Pacific was down, primarily driven by China, while again we had good performance in Latin America."

Q4 was a mixed bag for IBM's business units: its Software arm's revenue grew three per cent annually, but its Services division's sales slumped two per cent over the same period. Sales in its Global Financing arm remained flat while its Systems and Technology branch's revenue slump 26 per cent annually to $4.2bn.

IBM boss Ginni Rometty added that in view of her firm's overall full-year results, she has recommended that she and her senior leadership team forgo their personal annual incentive payments, but added that the firm is still on track to meet its targets.

"As we enter 2014, we will continue to transform our business and invest aggressively in the areas that will drive growth and higher value," she said.

"We remain on track toward our 2015 roadmap for operating earnings per share of at least $20, a step in our long-term strategy of industry leadership and continuous transformation."