IBM Continued to Grow Revenue — or Did It?

After nearly six years of year-over-year revenue declines, International Business Machines (NYSE: IBM)finally returned to growth last quarter. The long drought was the result of an ongoing transition from many of the company's legacy businesses, while it continued to develop its higher-growth segments composed of cloud computing, analytics, cognitive computing, security, and mobile.

These businesses, which the company dubbed strategic imperatives, are seen as crucial to the company's evolution.