RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK – IBM bought Raleigh-based Red Hat three years ago, betting the Hatters would deliver on cloud computing opportunities. And Big Blue’s latest quarterly earnings show Red Hat driving more revenue.
Big Blue (NYSE: IBM) shares climbed some 7% in after-hours trading Monday after IBM (NYSE: IBM) reported a 6.5% year-over-year revenue increase to $16.7 billion.
Earnings topped expectations by 6C at #3.35 and revenues exceeded Street projections by $740 million, according to business news site Seeking Alpha.
Red Hat helped beat those targets, its sales climbing 19%.
Of that overall revenue, $6.2 billion came from hybrid cloud sales – up 7%. For the year, club revenues rose 20% to $20.2 billion.
Overall, the software segment of IBM’s revenue produced $7.3 billion, an increase of 8.2%.
“We increased revenue inthe fourth quarter with hybrid cloud adoption driving growth in software and consulting,” said Arvind Krishna, IBM’ chairman and chief executive officer, who led the effort to make the $34 billion Red Hat acquisition.
“Our fourth quarter results give us confidence in our ability to deliver our objectives of sustained mid-single digit
revenue growth and strong free cash flow in 2022,” he added.
