Washington

FOR IBM, converting to the cloud is taking a toll. Even though it's necessary to drive future growth, the company has to sacrifice profits for now.

Chief executive officer Ginni Rometty is focusing returning International Business Machines Corp to growth through new initiatives such as data analytics, mobile and cloud computing - where technology is delivered via the Internet, instead of stored onsite. Cloud computing gives clients more flexibility in ordering software and can limit their need for IBM's servers and mainframes, crimping profits.