New York, July 18: International Business Machines on Wednesday said it eked out a second-quarter profit of just a few pennies a share as the world's largest computer maker took a $1.4 billion charge to exit money-losing businesses and cut jobs. But even without the big charge, earnings at IBM, which sells everything from computer software to microchips to computer services, fell sharply as corporations concerned about their own bottom lines cut back on technology spending. But the Armonk, New York-based company's lauded services business, which has become its biggest revenue line, declined for the third quarter in a row as companies both pulled back on existing deals and failed to sign new ones.

"It's almost the kind of situation that as Global Services goes, so goes IBM, and that's kind of how they've restructured the company. That is the long-term driver of the stock," said Marty Shagrin, an analyst at Victory Capital who found no major surprises in the quarterly report. Bureau Report