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New Big Blue UK, Ireland exec to give kiss o' life to server sales

Q1 down by more than 40 per cent, claim sources

It's all change in the upper echelons of IBM's UK and Ireland Systems Technology Group: its vice-president Shaun Coulson has handed control of the unit to Tosca Colangeli amid channel talk of collapsing server sales.

Colangeli is a ten-year-plus IBM veteran who most recently served as veep for Big Blue's Computer Services Industry wing. Coulson is heading off to run IBM's storage business across Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Well-placed channel sources told us that Big Blue's UK server sales in Q1 2013 fell to a six-year low: revenues were down by more than 40 per cent compared to the same period last year, our industry insiders claimed.

IBM - which was close to offloading its x86 server operation to Lenovo before talks collapsed over the price - doesn't break down its sales by regions, but the systems business tanked globally in 2013's first quarter.

Revenues in that three-month period dropped 5.1 per cent year-on-year to $23.4bn (£15.45bn) but within that the Systems Technology Group (STG) fell 17 per cent to $3.11bn (£2.05bn) and posted a loss of $405m (£267.45m). Revenues from the Power System division were down 32 per cent and fell nine per cent from the System x arm, but grew seven per cent in the System z mainframe wing.

In April, IBM CEO Ginni Rometty shook up her top-level management: as a result STG global boss Rod Adkins was replaced by Tom Rosamilia, and Adkins moved aside to become senior veep of corporate strategy.

IBM declined to comment on this story. ®

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