INDUSTRY

ARMONK, NY -- IBM today announced that its first-quarter 2002 revenues are expected to be in the range of $18.4 to $18.6 billion compared with $21.0 billion in the first quarter of last year, based on preliminary data. The company said it expects first-quarter 2002 pre-tax income of between $1.650 billion to $1.750 billion. IBM also said that it expects first-quarter 2002 earnings per share will range from $.66 to $.70 compared with $.98 in the year-earlier period. John R. Joyce, IBM senior vice president and chief financial officer, said: ``As I said during our last analyst call in January, the business environment remains very tough. We saw a continued slowdown in customer buying decisions in the first quarter. The first quarter traditionally is the weakest period of the year for technology purchases, and many of our customers chose to reduce or defer capital spending decisions until they see a sustained improvement in their businesses. ``As a result, we saw across-the-board weakness in revenues in the first quarter, particularly in our OEM technology business. We expect that our Technology Group revenues will decline by approximately 35 percent in the quarter and that this business will lose approximately $200 million on a pre-tax basis, or $.08 per share, in the quarter,'' Mr. Joyce said. ``Despite the difficult environment, we believe our strategies remain the right ones for our industry and that we will continue to gain or hold share in key strategic areas. We remain committed to taking actions to improve our competitiveness, and we are exceptionally well positioned to benefit when business conditions improve.'' IBM reports its first-quarter results on April 17.