IBM Sees Tech Spending Growth Unless a ‘Catastrophic Recession’ Hits

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(Bloomberg) -- International Business Machines Corp. Chief Executive Officer Arvind Krishna said he sees technology spending continuing to grow despite fears over rising interest rates, inflation and labor constraints.

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Unless there’s a “catastrophic recession,” corporate spending on technology should continue to increase, Krishna said Thursday during an event hosted by the Economic Club of New York. “As I talk to CEOs and CIOs across the globe, almost none of them are talking about cutting down technology spending,” Krishna said, adding that one point of caution is whether western Europe goes through a “major energy crisis.”

Under Krishna, IBM has bet on cloud computing and artificial intelligence for growth and made 25 acquisitions since April 2020. Its stock has been a relative safe haven in the tech market meltdown, rallying 8.1% this year through Wednesday’s close compared with a 28% dip in the Nasdaq 100 index. In the most recent earnings report, IBM beat sales estimates and affirmed its cash flow forecast.

Meanwhile, tech giants like Amazon.com Inc. and Meta Platforms Inc. began cutting thousands of jobs this month. Krishna said IBM hasn’t frozen hiring, though is adding workers at a more moderate pace than last year, focused on which regions are growing. The Armonk, New York-based company had more than 280,000 workers globally as of the end of 2021.

The company likely won’t institute a return-to-office mandate as long as attendance keeps growing, Krishna said. US workers are coming into the office nearly 50% of the time, though Krishna said he’d like to see it hit 60%. Office attendance is slightly higher in Europe, and almost completely back in Japan and China, the CEO said.

While productivity isn’t hurt by remote work, it’s more difficult to maintain the organization’s culture, Krishna said.

Krishna added that IBM hasn’t been affected by the downturn in cryptocurrency values and the implosion of companies like FTX. “We, as IBM, are not going to go into blockchain for crypto,” adding that it’s investing in blockchain’s other uses such as tracking products.

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