IBM Bets Big on Cloud & Data Despite Revenue Drop 📉

IBM reported its fourteenth straight quarter of declining sales on Monday, but don't expect the company to change its strategy.<br />Chief Financial Officer Martin Schroeter told skeptical analysts that his company is focused on growing its cloud computing, data analytics, security, and mobile businesses.<br />The "aggressive investments" required today would pay off in the future, he promised.<br />"We are investing heavily into Watson, we are investing heavily into Watson Health," said Schroeter, who acknowledged that the spending has yet to pay off.<br />"But they are the right things to do because those have tremendous futures to them."<br />The bright side, according to Schroeter, was the 17% year-to-year growth in what IBM calls its strategic imperatives that include cloud computing, data analytics, and mobile.<br />"Where we have been investing, we have been driving tremendous growth," Schroeter said.<br />The company also said there will be layoffs as part of its continued transition, but it didn't give any specific numbers.