DALLAS, TX--(MARKET WIRE)--Aug 19, 2008 -- IBM (IBM - News), today announced that it has received high marks in the 2008 Annual Report Card (ARC) from Everything Channel's VARBusiness. Now in its 23rd year, the VARBusiness ARC Awards recognize outstanding partner programs and superb vendor service in 18 major product categories. The ARC awards were held at an awards ceremony held on August 18 at the Gaylord Texan Resort and Convention Center in Dallas.

IBM was named the ARC Overall Winner and Company of the Year in the Data & Information Management software category and received mention for the Volume Mainstream Business Servers category. The company was also awarded first place in the Support subcategory and in the Partnership subcategory.

"For 23 years we've asked Solution Providers to grade their vendor partners on criteria such as product quality and innovation, partner programs and support, and each year the results of these grades have created the VARBusiness Annual Report Card which reflects the level of commitment vendors have to the channel and to their Solution Provider partners. Congratulations to all of the winners," said Robert C. DeMarzo, senior vice president and editorial director, Everything Channel editorial.

Winners were selected by VARBusiness editorial based on the survey results of more than 5,000 systems integrators, IT consulting organizations, value-added resellers (VARs), solution providers and software developers.

"IBM graciously accepts these awards as a testament to our leadership in the industry and the value that we add for our Business Partners and the channel," said Michael Gerentine, vice president of Global Channel and Solutions Marketing for IBM. "These mentions reinforce the fact that we are taking our business in the right direction and we will continue to expand to meet the needs of our partners."

About VARBusiness (www.varbusiness.com)

For the past 20 years, VARBusiness' strategic resources have been the gateway to the commercial and public sector (or government) Solution Provider community. The VARBusiness integrated platform of media opportunities provides strategic insight for technology integrators through industry-defining research, in-depth editorial, channel events and innovative Web services, enabling these IT professionals to make educated decisions for their businesses, partnerships and customers. VARBusiness offerings lead vendors and distributors to unprecedented access to the most powerful strategic Solution Providers in the market. VARBusiness has been the recipient of numerous industry awards for both editorial content and design.

Everything Channel (www.everythingchannel.com, www.channelweb.com)

Everything Channel, formerly CMP Channel, is the one-stop-shop for accessing, enabling and accelerating technology sales channels. From branding and recruiting to marketing and sales, Everything Channel offers technology marketers the unmatched breadth and depth of global brands and market intelligence combined with an unparallel audience loyalty and credibility serving all technology sales channels. Through innovative sales and marketing solutions, Everything Channel arms the sellers of technology with the resources they need to achieve measurable and significant results. Everything Channel is a subsidiary of United Business Media (http://www.unitedbusinessmedia.com/), a global provider of news distribution and specialist information services with a market capitalization of more than $2.5 billion.

     Contacts:
      
     Dan Neel
     Everything Channel
     212-600-3326
     dneel@everythingchannel.com
      
     Jill Holt
     IBM Media Relations
     845-512-1619
     jolt@us.ibm.com