IBM may stop shrinking after half-decade losing streak. Is it a turnaround?

The fact that new businesses didn't grow enough added to their woes

For five and a half years, nearly the entire tenure of its chief executive, Virginia M Rometty, IBM has reported a steady erosion of revenue.

Selling off its chip manufacturing and smaller data-center computer businesses contributed to the decline. So, too, did the fact that new businesses like cloud computing, data analytics and artificial intelligence had not yet grown big enough to make up for the downturn in IBM’s traditional hardware and software products.

But IBM’s half-decade losing streak will most likely end on Thursday, analysts predict, when the company reports its quarterly performance.

The crossover to growth would be a long-awaited bright