The Most Important Takeaway in IBM's Earnings Miss

By Tim Beyers – Oct 21, 2013 at 6:30PM

NYSE: IBM

International Business Machines

Market Cap

$167B

Today's Change

(0.16%) $0.29

Current Price

$182.19

Price as of April 23, 2024, 4:00 p.m. ET

Plummeting systems revenue signals an important shift.

Are IBM's (IBM 0.16%) glory days over? Fool contributor Tim Beyers looks at Big Blue's troubling third-quarter earnings miss in the following video.

Revenue fell about $1 billion short of what Wall Street was expecting, overshadowing a modest $0.03 beat on the bottom line. For her part, CEO Ginni Rometty told analysts that IBM is working on improving "execution" in growth markets and elements of the hardware business that are underperforming. At least she's focused on the right areas, Tim says.

Systems and technology revenue fell 17% year over year, which suggests IBM is having a much tougher time selling servers and infrastructure to large clients. Hardly surprising with the wholesale shift to cloud computing that we've seen in recent years, Tim argues.

Are you buying IBM at current prices? Selling? Please watch the video to get Tim's full take and then leave a comment to let us know where you stand.

Fool contributor Tim Beyers is a member of the Motley Fool Rule Breakers stock-picking team and the Motley Fool Supernova Odyssey I mission. He owned shares of International Business Machines at the time of publication. Check out Tim's web home and portfolio holdings or connect with him on Google+, Tumblr, or Twitter, where he goes by @milehighfool. You can also get his insights delivered directly to your RSS reader.

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