By Senad Karaahmetovic
International Business Machines (NYSE:IBM) is considering selling its weather business, which includes a popular website Weather.com, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal.
IBM is reportedly looking to streamline its business operations and is seeking a buyer for its weather unit. The process is still at an early stage and there may not be a deal. At this point, private equity firms are the most likely buyer, the report added.
If such a deal takes place, IBM is likely to book a significant loss given it paid more than $2 billion in 2015 to acquire The Weather Company.
Last year, IBM sold some healthcare assets to private-equity firm Francisco Partners, saying it wants to focus more on platform-based hybrid cloud and artificial intelligence (AI) strategy.
The company is due to report Q1 earnings next week. Credit Suisse analysts lowered the price target on IBM to $162 per share but reiterated an Outperform rating.
“We think the company is more insulated than others to a potential recession given recurring software revenue and AI assets,” they said in a note.
IBM shares are down about 8.8% year-to-date (YTD).