A global slide in technology spending led IBM to its first quarterly earnings decline since anxiety about the Year-2000 computer bug crimped profits at the end of 1999. The company said that its personal computer and microelectronics business, which it had expected to be weak during the third quarter, continued to weigh on earnings.

The New York-based company, which employs about 4,500 people in Dublin, reported net income of $1.6 billion (€1.8 billion) or 90 US cents per share, compared with $2 billion, or $1.08 a share, in the year-ago quarter. The figure was marginally ahead of the consensus forecast of US analysts.

Sales were $20.4 billion, down from $21.78 billion in the same period a year ago.

Analysts had been expecting the company to report weak earnings and, during recent weeks, had trimmed their estimates for it as competitors such as Sun Microsystems and EMC warned that the third quarter would be weaker than expected.