IBM: Revenues down, profits up in Q2 • The Register

Sometimes I get the sense that IBM is more into financial engineering than software engineering; see the full article for more details.  

In the second quarter ended on June 30, IBM reported total sales of $23.25bn, down 13.3 per cent, more or less in line with other big players in the IT sector. And its gross profits were down 8.8 per cent to $10.6bn. But through the magic of cost cutting (including surgical layoffs), of integration of its global businesses (meaning consolidating and offshoring major operations such as managing its customer support centers or supply chain, but IBM never admits that), of acquiring small, profitable software and services companies, and of exiting unprofitable commodity businesses, IBM was still able to boost net earnings by 12.2 per cent to $3.1bn

IBM: Revenues down, profits up in Q2 • The Register