Channel Beat: IBM's 17-Quarter Earnings Slump

IBM beat expectations in the second fiscal quarter, but earnings declined for the 17th straight fiscal quarter.

Earnings were down 3 percent from the second quarter of 2015, but IBM CFO Martin Shroeter told investors the company is right on track for its business transformation.

Core businesses were flat from the first quarter, but cloud business grew 30 percent.

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"As-a-service" products were also up more than 50 percent.

Intel is another company undergoing a transformation in its technology portfolio, and its second-quarter financials reflected as much.

Intel's Data Center Group was up 5 percent, and sales to cloud service providers were up 9 percent.

Intel's IoT business was down 12 percent from the first quarter and 2 percent year-over-year.

Cloud powered Microsoft through the close of its fiscal year, with Azure "as-a-service' offerings posting 102 percent growth in the fourth quarter.

That's nearly double the revenue and usage it saw in 2015.

CEO Satya Nadella said the company's commercial cloud business should see $20 billion in revenue by 2018.

Microsoft also acquired social media giant LinkedIn during the quarter.