International Business Machines Corporation - IBM STOCK NEWS

IBM (NYSE: IBM) reported third-quarter 2020 earnings, revealing a GAAP EPS of $1.89 and operating EPS of $2.58 on revenues of $17.6 billion, down 2.6% year-over-year. The company's cloud revenue hit $6.0 billion, up 19%, with total cloud revenue for the last 12 months at $24.4 billion, a 22% increase. Red Hat revenue surged 17%. Despite a solid gross profit margin growth of 180 basis points to 48%, consolidated diluted EPS decreased by 27% year-to-date, reflecting a challenging environment. The firm maintains a strong cash position of $15.8 billion.

IBM has partnered with Burger King Brazil to launch TOP, a virtual assistant powered by IBM Watson, aimed at enhancing communication among its 16,000 employees across 800 restaurants. This AI-driven tool allows employees to access HR services via WhatsApp, handling 50% of HR-related requests and enabling faster response times. A recent report from IBM highlights the importance of adopting HR 3.0 principles for greater organizational resilience and employee engagement. This collaboration aims to further digital transformation while supporting employee needs amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

CMA CGM and MSC Mediterranean Shipping Company have integrated onto the TradeLens platform, enhancing logistics data sharing globally. This platform, developed by IBM and Maersk, aims to digitally transform the shipping industry, moving away from paper-based processes. The integration allows for improved document sharing, reduced costs, and increased efficiency across supply chains.

With over 175 organizations involved, TradeLens has tracked 30 million container shipments and facilitates nearly real-time access to shipping data, benefiting carriers and their customers.

IBM has partnered with Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Lisboa to create a teleconsultation solution running on IBM public cloud, aimed at enhancing health care access during the COVID-19 pandemic. The platform enables patients to schedule and attend medical appointments via their mobile phones, reducing travel and exposure risks. Nearly 300 appointments have been booked using this platform. IBM's secure cloud technology ensures patient data protection, vital for regulated industries. SCML will access IBM services at no cost for three months to implement this initiative, which addresses critical health care needs amidst rising COVID-19 cases.

IBM has established a disaster recovery site for KAZ Minerals using its Cloud infrastructure, enhancing the copper producer's operational resilience against disasters. The site, deployed in four months, utilizes IBM Cloud Bare Metal Servers and VMware Site Recovery Manager, automating recovery processes and minimizing IT infrastructure costs. This hybrid cloud setup allows KAZ Minerals to efficiently safeguard critical applications, emphasizing budget efficiency by avoiding additional capital expenditures. This initiative is in line with their strategy to maintain operational continuity amidst increasing risks from natural disasters.

IBM Security has unveiled new features for Cloud Pak for Security, enhancing its capabilities for data security management across hybrid cloud environments. These updates include access to six threat intelligence feeds, 25 pre-built connections, and 165 case management integrations, enabling security teams to manage threats from a unified console. The upcoming data security hub, launching in Q4 2020, aims to bridge data security and threat management, potentially reducing breach response times. IBM emphasizes the need for a cohesive approach in a complex security landscape, promoting a zero trust security strategy.

IBM (NYSE: IBM) and The Climate Service (TCS) announced a strategic alliance on October 14, 2020, aimed at enhancing climate risk analytics for financial institutions and corporations. The TCS Climanomics® software platform is now available on Red Hat OpenShift via IBM Cloud, facilitating consistent climate risk reporting aligned with the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) framework. This partnership aims to help organizations quantify climate risks, integrate insights into decision-making, and drive competitive resilience.

On October 12, 2020, IBM showcased its new natural language processing technology during the debut episode of "That's Debatable" on Bloomberg Television. The series, sponsored by IBM, featured a debate on wealth redistribution among prominent economists and policymakers. Key Point Analysis, developed by IBM Research, analyzed over 3,500 global submissions, revealing that 56% of arguments favored wealth redistribution. The technology aims to enhance business decision-making by summarizing complex data effectively. The episode is available for streaming on Bloomberg.com.