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As IBM (NYSE:IBM) shares dipped by 2% in after-hours trading Wednesday, Chief Executive Arvind Krishna said the tech-services giant remains committed to the opportunities coming from its hybrid cloud and artificial intelligence technology offerings.
Krishna made his comments on a conference call to discuss details of IBM's (IBM) fiscal fourth-quarter results and business outlook for all of 2023. With IBM reporting earnings of $3.60 a share, on revenue of $16.69B, Krishna said the results demonstrated the ongoing expansion of the company's hybrid cloud and AI strategies.
"[Our] growth was broad based," Krishna said. "Technology continues to be a fundamental source of competitive advantage."
Krishna said IBM's (IBM) revenue growth was "in line" with the company's forecast to rise in the "mid single-digit range".
"We are pleased with our progress," Krishna said. "We're confident in our ability to leverage hybrid cloud with AI as a foundation to build upon this year."
With respect to its different business areas, IBM (IBM) said software sales rose almost 3% from a year ago, to $7.3B, while consulting revenue edged up by 0.5%, to $4.8B, and infrastructure sales of $4.5B rose 1.6% from the fourth quarter of 2021.
Going forward, IBM (IBM) Chief Financial Officer James Kavanaugh said that even operating in what he called a "highly inflationary market", the company was pleased with the overall fundamentals of its business.
"It demonstrates we have become a higher growth, higher value company," Kavanaugh said.
Still, even as Kavanaugh said IBM (IBM) still expects to see "solid growth" in revenue this year, the uncertain state of the economy and the impact of currency exchange rates make it "prudent" to expect revenue to grow at the low end of its mid single-digit range outlook.
IBM (IBM) also joined the line of tech giants that have recently announced large rounds of job cuts, as Kavanaugh said in a Bloomberg interview that IBM (IBM) will cut 3,900 jobs, or about 1.5% of its worldwide workforce.