IBM revenue continues 12-quarter slide

IBM has reported a 12 percent fall in first-quarter revenue as the technology company continues to shed unprofitable businesses to focus on cloud-computing initiatives.

The world's largest technology services company's shares were marginally down at US$165.71 (A$214.52) in after-hours trading.

It was the 12th straight quarter that the Armonk, New York-based company reported a drop in quarterly revenue, taking into account effects of currency.

IBM's revenue has been shrinking for three years now as the company sheds low-profit businesses such as cash registers, low-end servers and semiconductors and focuses on emerging areas such as security software and cloud services.

But the new businesses have so far failed to make up for revenue lost to divestitures.

The company also said it now expects a seven percent impact from currency headwinds in the full year. It had earlier expected an impact of five to six percent.

Net income fell slightly to US$2.33 billion for the quarter ended March 31 from US$2.38 billion a year earlier.

Total revenue fell to US$19.6 billion from US$22.2 billion.

Analysts on average had expected a profit of US$2.80 per share on revenue of US$19.64 billion.

IBM's shares closed at US$166.16 on the New York Stock Exchange on Monday.