IBM is aligned around a single, focused business model: innovation. IBM takes its breadth and depth of insight on issues, processes and operations across a variety of industries, and invents and applies technology to help solve its clients' most intractable business and competitive problems. Although we remain committed, as ever, to lead the development of state-of-the-art technologies, and the products and service offerings built around them, we measure ourselves today by how well we help clients solve their biggest and most pressing problems.
Our Values
Our values as IBMers shape everything we do, every choice we make on behalf of this company. Having a shared set of values helps us make decisions and, in the process, makes our company great. But their real influence occurs when we apply these values to our personal work and our interactions with one another and the wider world. IBMers determined that our actions will be driven by these values:
- Dedication to every client's success
- Innovation that matters, for our company and for the world
- Trust and personal responsibility in all relationships
Who we're with
IBM's clients include many different kinds of enterprises, from sole proprietorships to the world's largest organizations, governments and companies representing every major industry and endeavor.
The majority of the company's enterprise business, which excludes the company's original equipment manufacturer (OEM) technology business, occurs in industries that are broadly grouped into six sectors:
- Financial Services: Banking, Financial Markets, Insurance
- Public: Education, Government, Healthcare, Life Sciences
- Industrial: Aerospace, Automotive, Defence, Chemical and Petroleum, Electronics
- Distribution: Consumer Products, Retail, Travel, Transportation
- Communications: Telecommunications, Media and Entertainment, Energy and Utilities
- Small and Medium Business: Mainly companies with less than 1,000 employees
Who we are
To reach a media relations specialist at IBM, use the Media Contacts link on the left side of this page. To reach any other IBM employee, use the link below.
Fast facts
- Revenue: $91.4 billion, Net Income: $9.4 billion, Earnings per share: $6.06, Total Assets: $103.2 billion. (2006 year-end from continuing operations)
- IBM has 355,766 employees worldwide, and serves customers in 170 countries. (2006)
- In 2006 IBM invested $6.1 billion in Research and Development.
- IBM's net 2006 cash investment of $3.8 billion for 13 acquisitions — nine of them in key strategic areas of software — was up $2.3 billion year to year.
- In January 2006, the United States Patent and Trademark Office reported that IBM earned more patents than any other company for the thirteenth consecutive year. In 2005, IBM earned 2,941 patents -- 1,100 more patents than any other company.
- IBM is the world leader in middleware and the second-largest software company overall. IBM is the market leader in information management software, all application integration and middleware categories; instant messaging software for corporations; portal software; and systems management and systems operations software.
- IBM is the world leader in IT services and consulting. With approximately 200,000 services professionals globally, the company's offerings include data centre outsourcing, business transformation services, consulting, systems integration, application management services, infrastructure and system maintenance and Web hosting. (3/2007)
- The world leader in server sales, IBM has improved its server market position by about 10 points since 2000. IBM leads in supercomputers, with 237 of the top 500 systems including number one, BlueGene/L, and four of the world's top five systems. (11/06)
- Power Architecture microprocessors, custom designed and manufactured by IBM, run both the Nintendo Wii and Microsoft Xbox 360 game consoles. Sony PLAYSTATION 3 is powered by the Cell Broadband Engine, a nine-core Power Architecture chip manufactured by IBM and designed jointly by IBM, Sony, and Toshiba.
Business operations summary
Our business model is built to support two principal goals: helping our clients succeed in delivering business value by becoming more efficient and competitive through the use of business insight and information technology solutions; and providing long-term value to our shareholders. In support of these objectives, our business model has been developed over time through strategic investments in services and technologies that have the best long-term growth and profitability prospects based on the value they deliver to clients. And inherent in the model is a commitment to employees and the communities in which we operate.
