IBM insists AI didn't kill software deals, just delayed them
Big Blue says customers postponed rather than abandoned major purchases as hardware soaked up enterprise budgets
IBM is asking investors to view calendar Q2's software wobble as merely a temporary AI-induced panic attack, insisting the delayed deals that triggered one of its steepest stock slides in years are already starting to return.
Just over a week after its preliminary results sent stock tumbling, Big Blue devoted much of its earnings call to arguing that nothing fundamental had changed. Customers hadn't abandoned software, executives insisted; they'd simply emptied their wallets on servers, storage, and memory first.
"The majority of what didn't happen in the second quarter was large capex deals at large clients," IBM CEO Arvind Krishna said. "We have been very pleased to see that about a third of those have already closed."
Krishna stopped short of declaring victory, adding: "The fact that a third have already closed in...
Copyright of this story solely belongs to theregister.com. To see the full text click HERE
