NEW YORK, July 18 (Xinhua) -- International Business Machines (IBM) Corp. on Wednesday reported strong second-quarter earnings in the second quarter due to gains in its global services and software business.

    The IT giant said it earned 2.26 billion dollars, or 1.55 dollars a share, up from 2.02 billion dollars or 1.30 dollars a share a year ago.

    Revenue grew by 8.6 percent to 23.77 billion dollars from last year's 21.9 billion dollars.

    The company said its signed new services contracts in the quarter worth 11.7 billion dollars, up 22 percent from a year ago while its software sales rose by 13 percent, to 4.8 billion dollars in the quarter.