Top 1000 2010: Company 5 - IBM Ireland
Give and take
One of the most important investors in the Irish economy, IBM has seen ups and downs over the last 12 months but still remains strong.
In July 2009, as job cuts were coming thick and fast across all sectors in Ireland, IBM announced that it was creating 100 jobs in Dublin, Cork and Galway. As welcome as this announcement was in itself, it is the nature of the jobs that is most important.
IBM Newsfeed
May 3rd: "Serious Game" announced by IBM
IBM announces the launch of CityOne, a new "serious game" that can help customers, business partners and students discover how to make cities and their industries smarter by solving real-world business, environmental and logistical problems, it says. Based on decades of experience in solving business challenges in creative ways, the games are designed to train the workforce of tomorrow.
May 3rd: IBM expands cloud computing offering with acquisition
IBM acquires Cast Iron Systems to broaden the delivery of cloud computing services for clients, it says. Cast Iron Systems, a privately held company based in Mountain View, California, delivers cloud integration software, appliances and services. Financial terms were not disclosed. The acquisition expands IBM's industry-leading business process and integration software portfolio, which grew more than 20% in the first quarter of 2010.
April 27th: IBM raises divided, expands stock buyback
IBM raises its quarterly dividend to 65 cents per share from 55 cents per share. The company has also expanded its share buyback programme ahead of its annual shareholder meeting in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It will spend another $8bn on share repurchases, on top of $2bn remaining from its previous authorisation. Last year the company spent about $7.5bn buying back its own stock.
April 22nd: IBM server move to cost 200 Irish jobs
Computer giant IBM says it will axe 200 jobs at its Technology Campus in Mulhuddart, Dublin. This follows the announcement last year that it will move its high-end server manufacturing operation to Singapore. The firm hopes to achieve the redundancies on a voluntary basis but there will also be opportunities for staff to transfer within the company.
April 19th: IBM reports stronger-than
-expected quarterly results
IBM nudged up its full-year outlook and reported stronger-than-expected quarterly results, as companies increased spending on software and IT consulting, adding to hopes of a sustained recovery for the technology sector. Its first-quarter profit rose to $2.6bn, or $1.97 per share, from $2.3bn, or $1.70 per share, a year earlier. Revenue rose 5% to $22.9bn from $21.7bn.
March 25th: 200 positions to be created at new €66m research centre
IBM is to create 200 jobs in Dublin after it chose the city for an innovative research centre as part of its first Smarter Cities project. This centre will employ researchers to look at improving urban planning in cities around the world in areas such as an innovative research centre.
They come as part of IBM’s €25m investment in Irish software labs and are part of an expansion that will occur over a period of three years. There is much loose talk about the so-called “smart economy” but if anyone is looking for evidence that it can happen, this IBM expansion is as good a place as any to start.
Now over 50 years in Ireland, the US multinational is one of Ireland's biggest employers, currently employing about 3000 staff. Following the announcement last July, up to 600 of these work in IBM software labs.
Of course, it hasn’t been all good news for Ireland emanating from the huge IT company. Two hundred other jobs are to be axed by IBM in Dublin. The announcement followed a decision by the company to move its high-end server manufacturing to Singapore. And that demonstrates the other, hugely competitive side of the smart economy.
Nevertheless, IBM is one of the most important investors in the Irish economy. Its investments here chime with the Irish government's stated strategy of embracing the knowledge economy.
The company is Ireland's longest-established IT multinational and is now over fifty years in this country. The firm is third-largest employer in Ireland and employees from 60 different nations are employed by it here. It now employs about 3,000 staff here, moving up from where it began operations with just three employees, working from a room in the Shelbourne Hotel. These first employees - Derek Overend, Ray Girault and Margaret Fitzgerald - laid the foundations for the company in 1956. For the past 50 years, IBM Ireland's business has undergone major transformation, making the company one of the largest employers in the country today.
In 1980, IBM became the first company to set up a software facility in Ireland - a move that helped establish the nation's reputation as a premier location for software development. Since then, it has come a long way; it continued to invest more and more into the country, engaged in an historic alliance with Lenovo (a preferred provider of IBM-branded personal computers), opened a wireless and RFID (radio frequency identification) centre, and launched a Dublin-based European venture capital centre. Today, IBM staff work in several operations around Dublin, in manufacturing, e-procurement, sales and marketing, software development, consultancy, services and customer support and treasury operations.
IBM operates from three sites in Ireland including the Dublin technology campus in Mulhuddart, the ibm.com sales and support centre in Blanchardstown and head office in Ballsbridge.
IBM is the top middleware and the second-largest software company in the world. Over the past five years, it has invested nearly $16bn in acquiring more than 60 companies, making it the most acquisitive company in the industry, based on volume of transactions.
