It’s easy to see that IBM’s current annual revenues of $79.95bn have put it back where it was in 1998, when its revenues were $81.67bn: the numbers are on the public record. But this doesn’t allow for inflation. If you do that, IBM’s record is actually much worse. According to my calculations, IBM is now almost exactly where it was in 1980, when its turnover of $26.20bn was worth $80.83bn in today’s money.
That is astonishing for a company that used to dominate the technology business.
What is perhaps even more remarkable is that, since 1980, we’ve seen at least five major revolutions that could have lifted IBM to new heights.
