IBM Pays More to Borrow in Bond Market as Sales Decline
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International Business Machines Corp.’s borrowing costs are rising even as those of its peers fall, underscoring concerns that the world’s largest seller of computer services is struggling to find its place in the cloud.
IBM sold 10-year bonds last week with a 3.625 percent coupon, exceeding the cost of similar-maturity 3.375 percent notes issued in July even as average yields for debt in the company’s AA rating tier contracted. Quarterly revenue dropped 5.5 percent in the last three months of 2013 to $27.7 billion, the biggest decline since the U.S. economy exited its last recession, as an industrywide shift to offsite data storage erodes demand for IBM’s hardware.