๐จ $IBM CRASH MAY BE FAR FROM OVER
IBM just reported the Q2 earnings, and the numbers are weak:
๐ด Revenue: $17.16B vs. Est $17.86B
๐ด Adjusted EPS: $2.93 vs. Est. $3.02
๐ด Infrastructure: -7%
๐ด IBM Z: -42%
๐ด Transaction Processing: -8%
But most of this was already known. IBM pre-released the results last week, triggering a record 25% one-day crash and erasing roughly $67 billion in market value.
The actual post-earnings update was guidance:
โข 2026 constant-currency revenue growth cut to 4%-5% from more than 5%
โข Free cash flow still expected to increase by approximately $1B
โข Full-year pre-tax margin expansion is now expected to improve
There are still pockets of strength:
โข Red Hat revenue grew 11%
โข Distributed Infrastructure grew 37%
โข Power and Storage built a nearly $500M order backlog
โข Operating pre-tax margin expanded 30 basis points
IBM says large deals were delayed as enterprises redirected budgets toward servers, storage, memory, and cybersecurity.
The maintained cash-flow target prevented another collapse, but the disappearing earnings bounce shows investors still arenโt convinced this was only a timing problem.
IBM now needs to prove those delayed deals can close in the second half. Otherwise, the guidance cut confirms something worse:
AI infrastructure spending is actively draining budgets from traditional enterprise software.