IBM

[chialc88]

Ascendas also, not just IBM.

[orangetea]

DBS CEO Piyush Gupta noted that the bank has set aside $15 million over the next three years for developing the system within the bank. However, DBS has no plans to immediately start using Watson to assist its relationship managers.
Over the next several months, the bank will work with IBM to "teach" Watson what to look for when analysing the data that would be fed to it. Noting that the initial results are encouraging, Mr Gupta said: "By the end of the year, we would be able to roll out (the service) to our relationship managers."

http://www.zdnet.com/sg/dbs-bank-is-ibms...000024956/

[Drizzt]

this watson api. i wonder if it can be a growth driver.

[Wildreamz]

I think Watson will probably contribute a small percent to its overall revenue, if at all, but it is a worthy long term investment (may start to see some returns after 2-3 years).

I am long term long for IBM. Wanted to accumulate last Dec but turns out that my W-8Ben was not ready (SCB)..

Current price doesn't look as enticing as before (although less than 10% increase).

Also harder and harder to find bargains in the US market in general (cash already changed to USD)...

[orangetea]

Based on estimates in link below, Buffett's price is $173

http://www.cnbc.com/id/100657591

He prefers price to stay low so IBM can continue to do share buy back and reduce the float.

Its also one kind of financial engineering to prop up the EPS.

Long term should be ok (i guess) since its an innovation company focusing on solutions for MNCs rather than what many people perceive it to be a computer hardware business which is downtrend.

[orangetea]

Lenovo Said to Be in Advanced Talks to Buy IBM Server Unit

This is the second time

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-01-20...-unit.html

[orangetea]

IBM Closes Acquisition of Aspera

New Capabilities to Help Companies Speed Global Movement of Big Data on Premise and Through the Cloud

ARMONK, N.Y., Jan. 17, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced it has completed the acquisition of Aspera, Inc., a privately held company that securely speeds the movement of massive data files around the world. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20090416/IBMLOGO)

Aspera's patented technology accelerates the secure transfer of large files or data sets by up to 99.9 percent - potentially reducing a 26 hour transmission of a 24 gigabyte file, sent halfway around the world, down to just 30 seconds. This speed is achieved by Aspera's patented fasp™ protocol, which breaks the bottlenecks inherent in broadband networks to deliver high performance, efficiency and security in the most difficult WAN environments. This also gives customers a more efficient way to transport data to and from cloud networks.

Traditional network protocols limit the speed and reliability of moving Big Data to where it is needed most. Large data transfers can take hours or days by traditional methods and can be compromised by security issues. These barriers impede organizations across a wide range of industries, from a clinical research group needing to access complex genomic research stored across several cloud services around the world, to a production studio trying to quickly transmit a hit movie to a popular video streaming service.

Licensed to clients and partners in the cloud or on premise, Aspera delivers the industry's fastest transmission speeds over any network link regardless of file size, transfer distance or network conditions. Aspera provides these Big Data transfers with bandwidth control, predictability and security, including the encryption of files in transit or at rest.

"Aspera solves critical challenges at the intersection of two of the most influential trends driving business today - Big Data and cloud computing," said Craig Hayman, GM, Industry Cloud Solutions, IBM. "With this acquisition, IBM will help our customers more effectively and efficiently move large files to and from the cloud and within the enterprise to where individuals can extract real business insights from that data."

Aspera makes cloud computing even faster, more predictable and more cost effective for Big Data transfers such as enterprise storage, sharing virtual images or bursting to the cloud for increased computing capacity. Its fasp technology is licensed to many leading cloud computing services and will be integrated with IBM's recently acquired SoftLayer cloud infrastructure later this year.

This acquisition builds on IBM'sSmarter Commerce initiativeby allowing businesses to accelerate their digital supply chains between partners and suppliers. This also extends IBM's market-leading capabilities in Managed File Transfer with a complementary set of capabilities to help enterprises further gain control and oversight of their data transfers.

Aspera recently received an Emmy® award for Outstanding Achievement in Engineering Development, in which the academy commented that fasp is an "an industry game changer" used by "virtually all the major broadcast television networks, Hollywood studios and CG/animation houses."

To learn more about Aspera, please visit http://www-01.ibm.com/software/info/aspera/

Contact information:

Sean Audet

IBM Media Relations

spaudet@us.ibm.com

Read more: http://www.nasdaq.com/press-release/ibm-...z2qyzBt7hS

[orangetea]

IBM Commits $1.2 Billion to Expand Global Cloud Footprint

Builds a Massive Network of Local Cloud Hubs for Businesses Worldwide with 40 Data Centers Across Five Continents

ARMONK, N.Y., Jan. 17, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced plans to commit over $1.2 billion to significantly expand its global cloud footprint. This investment includes a network of data centers designed to bring clients greater flexibility, transparency and control over how they manage their data, run their businesses and deploy their IT operations in the cloud.

This year IBM plans to deliver cloud services from 40 data centers worldwide in 15 countries and five continents globally, including North America, South America, Europe, Asia and Australia. IBM will open 15 new centers worldwide adding to the existing global footprint of 13 global data centers from SoftLayer and 12 from IBM. Among the newest data centers to launch are China, Washington, D.C., Hong Kong, London, Japan, India, Canada, Mexico City and Dallas. With this announcement, IBM plans to have data centers in all major geographies and financial centers with plans to expand in the Middle East and Africa in 2015.

By some estimates, the global cloud market is set to grow to $200 billion by 2020[1]; driven largely by businesses and government agencies deploying cloud services to market, sell, develop products, manage their supply chain and transform their business practices.

"IBM is continuing to invest in high growth areas," said Erich Clementi, senior vice president of IBM Global Technology Services. "Last year, IBM made a big investment adding the $2 billion acquisition of SoftLayer to its existing high value cloud portfolio. Today's announcement is another major step in driving a global expansion of IBM's cloud footprint and helping clients drive transformation."

The new cloud investments IBM is making will provide business clients the ability to place and control their data globally. IBM SoftLayer gives clients the ability to choose a cloud environment and location that best suits their business needs and provides visibility and transparency to where data reside, control of data security and placement.

IBM SoftLayer is able to deliver high performance services globally across the SoftLayer network. The combination of distributed local data centers and a global network allows clients to place data where it is required, when it is required as well as the ability to consolidate or aggregate data as needed. This provides optimized application performance and responsiveness. SoftLayer's unique network architecture allows clients to optimize global performance using a private network and not be subject to the uncontrolled nature of the public networks and the internet.

"Cloudant's global expansion rate is fueled by the always-on commitment we make to our customers," said Cloudant CEO Derek Schoettle. "Our mission is to be the standard data layer for Web and mobile applications. That mission requires us to push application data to the network edge, in as many locations as possible. Expanding beyond IBM SoftLayer's current footprint presents significant value to our business. The investment IBM is making to expand their global footprint will not only help fuel our growth, but the growth of thousands of Cloudant users worldwide as well."

In today's world of rapid response with mobile and social data proliferation, this type of automation and speed of access to data with high availability and control makes IBM SoftLayer cloud infrastructure an ideal capability for business clients worldwide.

"Cloud represents a growing area for venture capitalist investment," said Ann Winblad, co-founder and Managing Director of Hummer Winblad Venture Partners. "By investing in the cloud ecosystem, IBM not only makes it easier for enterprises to adopt cloud and drive innovation, but also helps new companies of all sizes get off the ground more quickly."

IBM SoftLayer Underpins IBM's Growing Cloud Portfolio

The acquisition of SoftLayer represents another major investment for IBM clients. Since its acquisition in 2013, IBM SoftLayer has served nearly 2,400 new cloud clients.

In fact, IBM plans to establish SoftLayer as the foundation of its wide ranging cloud portfolio. The SoftLayer infrastructure will provide a scalable, secure base for the global delivery of cloud services spanning IBM's extensive middleware and SaaS solutions. SoftLayer's flexibility and global network will also facilitate faster development, deployment and delivery of mobile, analytic, social solutions as clients adopt cloud as a delivery platform for IT operations and manage their business.

Last week IBM made a significant investment and established the IBM Watson Group, a new business unit dedicated to the development and commercialization of cloud-delivered cognitive and Big Data innovations. As part of this initiative IBM will also deploy Watson on SoftLayer.

Read more: http://www.nasdaq.com/press-release/ibm-...z2qyzXUm8s

[orangetea]

IBM Corp. (IBM) is slated to report 4Q 2013 earnings after the close of trading on Tuesday, January 21. Results are typically released at approximately 4:05 p.m. EST and will be followed with a conference call at 4:30 p.m. IBM is a member of the Dow Jones Industrial Average, with broad market influence and could impact on the index futures.

[CityFarmer]

Will it make it more likely a deal for Lenovo/IBM negotiation on server business?

IBM revenue falls short of expectations, shares fall

International Business Machines Corp , the world's largest technology services company, reported its seventh straight quarterly decline in revenue that also fell short of estimates, hurt by lower demand for its services and hardware.

The company's shares fell 2 per cent to US$184.39 in after-hours trade.

Revenue fell 5 per cent to US$27.7 billion in the fourth quarter, missing analysts expectation of US$28.25 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

This is the fourth straight quarter that the company's revenue has fallen short of analysts' targets.

Ref: Reuters, Business Times Breaking News