Bengaluru — IBM’s shift to newer businesses such as cloud and security services helped it beat analysts’ quarterly revenue estimates, and the technology major hinted at sales growth after nearly six years of declines. Shares of the Dow component rose nearly 5.1% to $153.93 in extended trading on Tuesday. IBM has focused on cloud, cybersecurity and data analytics, or what the company calls its "strategic imperatives", to counter a slowdown in its legacy hardware and software businesses. Revenue from these businesses climbed 11% to $8.8bn in the third quarter to end-September, accounting for about 46% of the company’s total revenue. "Management is focused in the right areas, but still have some work and must demonstrate this growth is sustainable," said Josh Olson, an analyst at Edward Jones. Revenue from the cognitive solutions business, which includes the artificial intelligence (AI)-powered supercomputer Watson, rose nearly 4% to $4.40bn, after falling 2.5% in the previous quarter....
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