IBM enjoyed a healthy fourth quarter, and in contrast to its rivals HP and Compaq, reckons it is going into 2001 with "momentum" and "confidence".

Revenues for the quarter jumped 5.9 per cent to $25.6 billion, up from $24.2 billion for the period a year earlier. On the back of this net profits leaped 28 per cent to $2.67 billion, from $2.09 billion a year earlier.

The strong parts of its business were services, servers and custom chips - all driven by its customers striving to develop e-business.

Computer services were the largest single contributor to company profit and grew in double digits.
IBM's PC business was profitable for the second quarter in a row. Sales in Europe rose 3 per cent to $7.4 billion for the quarter, and 13 per cent to $5 billion in Asia.

Sales of Unix servers rose 49 per cent which the company said was "completely unexpected". ®