IBM

Fortune is smiling on John Argentiero, and he can hardly believe it.The double major in economics and decision-and-information sciences is graduating from the University of Maryland, College Park in a week and he has landed a job as a senior technical associate with AT&T Corp. in Middletown, N.J.One of the perks is that he'll be near his fiancee. Another is the company's health, dental and vision plan. The 401(k) is nice. But his salary blew him away. The 23-year-old will start at $53,800 a year.

ARMONK, N.Y. -- International Business Machines Corp., the world's biggest computer maker, said yesterday that first-quarter profit rose a better-than-expected 42 percent on revenue from its services business and increased computer sales.IBM earned $1.47 billion, or $1.55 a share, compared with $1.04 billion, or $1.06 a share, in the year-earlier period. The company was expected to earn $1.41 a share, the average estimate of analysts polled by First Call Corp. Revenue rose 15 percent to $20.32 billion, topping forecasts of about $19.2 billion.

ARMONK, N.Y. - John M. Thompson wanted to keep International Business Machines Corp.'s software workers happy.So when the software chief met new employees after IBM agreed to buy Tivoli Systems Inc. in January 1996, he didn't hesitate on a key question: Yes, the Friday beer bashes would continue. In fact, Thompson wrote a personal check to foot the bill.IBM software workers might get more than a few beers today. With hardware sales down, the world's top computer maker is betting more on software, a business it once treated as an afterthought.

As voice-control companies work to hijack control of the computer away from the keyboard, one sizable barrier threatens to foil the plot: People still are not comfortable talking to technology.Speech-recognition and voice-control technology have come a long way in just the past year, but even the industry's most ardent proponents admit to the psychological hurdles.At the recent Speech'TEK 99 conference, much of the talk centered on why Americans remain uncomfortable talking to computers. The issue is critical in light of recently released sales figures.

NEW YORK -- International Business Machines Corp. won a contract yesterday to provide $6 billion in services to Dell Computer Corp. during the next seven years, enhancing Dell's effort to sell sophisticated computers to corporations.The No. 1 direct seller of personal computers will offer its U.S. business, government and education clients maintenance and installation through IBM's Global Services unit starting next year. The agreement builds on a $16 billion pact in March that calls for Dell to buy parts from IBM, the world's top computer company.

IBM Corp. announced last week that it will stop selling its money-losing Aptiva home computers through U.S. retail stores and will sell them exclusively over the Internet. The PCs will be pulled from stores Jan. 1, while the company's profitable ThinkPad laptops will continue to be available on shelves.IBM fell from the consistent first or second spot in the consumer market in the early to mid-1990s to fourth this year, with a market share of about 10 percent. The company's consumer and corporate PC group lost $69 million in the third quarter and nearly $1 billion last year.

You're at work. Suddenly you get the nagging feeling that you might have left the stove on in your kitchen at home. You could drop everything and drive back to your house, or you could use your office computer to check your home electronic system.The futuristic option is the one that's being pushed by Bell Atlantic Corp. and IBM Corp. in a deal to be announced today. The two huge companies are teaming up to market a pricey home wiring system that prepares residences for the latest in Internet, television and audio technology as well as such goodies as home security and automated climate control.

ARMONK, N.Y. -- International Business Machines Corp., the world's No. 1 computer maker, agreed yesterday to buy Sequent Computer Systems Inc. for about $810 million in cash to get parts and software for advanced computer servers.IBM will pay $18 a share for Sequent, 29 percent more than Sequent's closing price on June 28, the day before a report said the companies were in acquisition talks. Sequent shares fell 16 cents to $17.28. IBM fell 31 cents to $137.06.Sequent's components and software string together many Intel Corp.

WASHINGTON -- IBM, the poor dear, was being bullied. Microsoft, according to an IBM official who testified at the antitrust trial, said it would deny IBM a license to use Microsofts Windows operating system unless IBM agreed not to promote products that compete with various Microsoft products.IBM refused to make that concession. And got the license anyway. Being a monopoly does not seem to be as much fun as it was in Standard Oils salad days.Two branches of the federal government, which is a case study in institutional sclerosis, are lecturing Microsoft on the virtues and modalities of innovation, but at least President Clintons Justice Department, which sometimes resembles a torpid lion sunning itself after dining on a succulent missionary, has at last found a violation of law sufficient to bestir it. Still, is it churlish to wonder, pianissimo, if there really is such a thing as antitrust law?

NEW YORK -- U.S. stocks rose for the first time in eight sessions as oil, retail and financial shares gained on optimism that today's jobs report will show that the economy is growing with little inflation.The market was also lifted by International Business Machines Corp., which won a $16 billion order to supply Dell Computer Corp. with computer parts. IBM will gain a steady source of sales and Dell will get access to advanced technology to use in more sophisticated machines.IBM climbed $4.25, to $171, accounting for 17 points of the Dow average's gain.

Jeopardy! seems the least complicated of game shows: simple questions and straightforward answers, made to order for the kind of person who files facts away with the relentless precision of a computer. But hold that buzzer. The joke is on us. It turns out that America's favorite TV quiz show is a lot more complicated than you might think, demanding not just facts and quick recall covering a broad range of topics but also analysis of subtle meaning, irony, riddles and other complexities, skills at which humans excel and computers stumble over.

Robert W. Bender, a retired IBM executive who had a leadership development consulting firm, died Sunday of pneumonia and sepsis at Georgetown Hospital in Washington. The Annapolis and Silver Spring resident was 77. Born in Philadelphia, he grew up in College Park. He earned a degree in horticulture and food technology from the University of Maryland and belonged to the Theta Xi fraternity. He joined IBM in 1959 as a salesman and quickly advanced into sales management, working in Baltimore and Washington.

glennmcnatt: writing about the new unemployment stats. anyone have a friend or relative who's lost a job or fears losing one? mrscarpediem: Dad called me wanting the "scoop" on situ w/ spouse not working, etc & is now upset I didn't open up on call. At work. At my desk. mrscarpedium: Very sad - passing little bridge today there was a new tent set up underneath. $2-5M homes all around it. Wiznutz: it's NEVER too early to fire someone. chrisrk: Sick of this recession, lost job at Nissan in Jan just got another for half of the salary i was on and everything is still going up in price.

Phelps cancels speech at IBM event in Las Vegas swimming Olympic champion Michael Phelps canceled plans to attend and speak yesterday at an IBM conference in Las Vegas, CNBC.com reported, and representatives for the Fells Point resident said he, not the company, made the decision. "Michael is concentrating on swimming this week," CNBC said a spokesman from Octagon, Phelps' management company, told the media outlet. Phelps is serving a three-month suspension from USA Swimming after a photo of him presumably smoking marijuana was published in a British tabloid.

Glitch at Verizon knocks thousands off Internet Several thousand Verizon customers in the Baltimore area were without Internet access for much of yesterday after a circuit board malfunctioned, a Verizon spokeswoman said. The glitch occurred during the late morning but was not caused by higher volume related to the presidential inauguration, according to spokeswoman Sandra Arnette. As of late afternoon, she said, technicians were still working to replace the board. Lorraine Mirabella CSX's 4th-quarter earnings fall 32% NEW YORK : Railroad operator CSX says its fourth-quarter earnings sank 32 percent from a year earlier, mostly as the result of a sizable writedown on the value of a resort the company owns.

HEWITT D. CRANE, 81 Early computer engineer Hewitt D. Crane, an early computer expert, died Tuesday of complications from Alzheimer's disease at his home in Portola Valley, Calif., said his wife, Suzanne Crane. Mr. Crane's career followed the arc of the early computing industry, starting in 1949 with a job at IBM's headquarters in New York City, where he was involved in the maintenance of an early IBM computer composed of 13,000 vacuum tubes and 25,000 relays. In 1952, he went to work at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, N.J., where he participated in a modification of the von Neumann computer, or JOHNNIAC, named for mathematician John von Neumann.

You don't speak Mandarin and you lose your wallet and your way in Shanghai, China. Pantomime and Pictionary aren't getting you anywhere. So, what do you do? International Business Machines Corp. says it can rescue you. Last year, the tech titan launched MASTOR, software that allows real-time, two-way communication between two people speaking different languages. All you do is speak into a personal digital assistant (PDA) or laptop in English and the gadgets talk or write back the sentences in another language.

Debbie Paladino, an IBM manager who had been a standout athlete while a Centennial High School student, died of pancreatic cancer Sunday at a West Palm Beach, Fla. hospital. The former Ellicott City resident was 44. Born in Cincinnati and raised in Chicago, she moved with her parents to Maryland in 1978. "Fate sent Debbie Paladino to Centennial High School because an athlete of her ilk comes along every 100 years," said a 1981 Evening Sun article that named her the paper's Female Prep Athlete of the Year.

Debbie Paladino, an IBM manager who had been a standout athlete while a Centennial High School student, died of pancreatic cancer Sunday at a West Palm Beach, Fla. hospital. The former Ellicott City resident was 44. Born in Cincinnati and raised in Chicago, she moved with her parents to Maryland in 1978. "Fate sent Debbie Paladino to Centennial High School because an athlete of her ilk comes along every 100 years," said a 1981 Evening Sun article that named her the paper's Female Prep Athlete of the Year.

The fallout from the banking industry's woes and a slowing American economy are certainly not hurting IBM yet. The giant technology company gave Wall Street a pleasant surprise yesterday by announcing quarterly earnings that were far higher - up 24 percent - than most analysts had forecast. The news sent International Business Machines Corp. up 5.4 percent, or $5.26, to $102.93 yesterday. The IBM announcement also lifted the broader market. The strong fourth-quarter performance by IBM, analysts say, is mainly a sign that some leading global corporations may be able to sidestep the impact of a sputtering U.S. economy because they depend on the American market far less today than in the past.