IBM bags multi-billion dollar outsourcing deal with ABN AMRO

Megadeal follows slooooow September sales

IBM has bagged a multi-billion dollar 10-year deal with Dutch bank ABN AMRO, the second major European outsourcing win for the company in the last month.

The deal is likely to bring cheer to Big Blue, following its recent "disappointing" third-quarter results.

The deal includes a private IBM cloud, mobile computing, managed services for mainframe, servers, storage, end-user computing, and support. IBM did not disclose the full details.

Piet Bil, IBM managing director for ABN AMRO, said the deal is intended to help the business become a digital bank.

In November IBM signed a seven-year €1bn (£800m) contract with Lufthansa to integrate mobile, social and analytics across the airline.

In its last quarter results posted in October, revenue fell across the company's divisions, dropping six per cent to $22.4bn.

IBM chief executive Ginny Rometty said the company was disappointed in its performance and blamed a "marked slowdown in September in client buying behavior."

Hardware fell most dramatically, down 15 per cent to $2.4bn. The company's global services outsourcing division fared slightly better, down three per cent to $13.7bn.

Big Blue was asked if the results would prompt it to follow HP's lead and split the business up. IBM said it was already divesting under-performing businesses such as the microelectronics unit, which is being passed over to Global Foundries. ®