IBM Expands European Reach In Poland And Turkey

International Business Machines (NYSE:IBM) has opened two new branches in Poland and two in Turkey to tap the fast growing IT markets in these countries. The total IT market for 2012 is an estimated $9.8 billion in Poland and $9 billion in Turkey.  The new offices will focus on catering to customers and partners in the small and medium-sized business sectors. The new Polish offices will be in the cities of Krakow and Poznan while the offices in Turkey are situated in the cities of Adana and Bursa.

IBM’s geographic expansion initiative is to target opportunities in white space territories in emerging markets where there is an opportunity for significant growth with organizations and Governments turning to IT to transform their businesses and maintain competitiveness. ^{[1] [2]}

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Targeting European Growth

IBM plans to use these new offices to service customers based out of Central and Eastern Europe. These countries have fairly large domestic markets with Poland’s IT market projected to be worth $13 billion by 2016 and Turkeys to grow to about $12.5 billion in the same time period.

In Krakow, as part of the Smarter Cities initiative, IBM is working to develop an intelligent waste management solution. This will be in association with the City Hall, the University of Science and Technology (AGH) and the Management of Municipal Infrastructure and Transport. People in the city can use this solution to report road surface waste and debris online, and it also doubles as a scheduler to plan and schedule municipal employees and contractors rounds around the city to keep the city’s streets clean. The city of Poznan has many automotive, transportation, logistics and manufacturing industries. IBM is already working with Volkswagen to provide a new computing infrastructure and information management system.

Adana is located in the south of Turkey and has experienced dynamic growth in manufacturing, natural resources and commercial sectors while Bursa is one of Turkey’s key industrial and production areas and is home to Turkey’s automotive industry. IBM is already working with a number of clients and helps provide IT infrastructure pertaining to security, systems performance, business continuity, virtualization and disaster management.

We currently have a $229 Trefis price estimate for IBM, which is ~15% above the current market estimate.

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1. IBM Expands Operations In Turkey, www.equities.com, Sept 12, 2012 [↩]
2. IBM Expands Operations In Poland, www.equities.com, Sept 12, 2012 [↩]