IBM Poguanposhuai to abandon next year's operating profit target shares tumbled 7.11%

October 21--IBM gave up its original 2015-year operating profit target, Reuters reported, announcing third-quarter results on the day, thanks to weak customer spending and falling software revenues. Affected by the company's shares fell 7.11% or 12.95 U.S. dollars, closed to 169.10 U.S. dollars, after the shares rose 0.02% or 0.04 U.S. dollars to 169.14 U.S. dollars. The decline in IBM's share price weighed on the Dow Jones index, which both rose sharply in Monday with the standard and poor 500 and the Nasdaq Composite index, but the Dow Jones industrial average rose only 0.12%, thanks to weak IBM shares. The fall in IBM's share price has also led to heavy losses for the company's biggest shareholder, Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway, which shrank by $ more than 13 billion to $168.7 billion in Monday. "We are disappointed with our performance, we see a significant decline in customer spending in September, and our performance shows that there has been an unprecedented rapid change in the industry," said Rometty, chairman and CEO of IBM. IBM says it will unveil its new 2015-year operating profit target next January. Daniel Ives, an analyst at FBR Capital Markets, said: "It seems to us that IBM needs to look for the success and growth of cloud computing through internal growth and external acquisitions, otherwise the company (and investors) will have a tougher time." Buffett, who holds 7% of IBM's shares, did not immediately respond to calls for comment. (Mushulin)