Intel beats Wall Street estimates in Q4 2015, with revenues reaching $14.9 billion (slightly higher than forecasts of $14.8bn) while full-year 2015 revenues total $55.4bn.

Net income for Q4 2015 totals $3.6bn, a -1% Y-o-Y decrease.

“Our results for the fourth quarter marked a strong finish to the year and were consistent with expectations,” CEO Brian Krzanich says. “Our 2015 results demonstrate that Intel is evolving and our strategy is working. This year, we’ll continue to drive growth by powering the infrastructure for an increasingly smart and connected world.”

As one might expect from Intel talk of a "Post-PC" identity, the company is busy trying to transition away from PCs-- an industry still in decline, as Client Computing Group (covers PC and mobile efforts) revenues drop by -1% Y-o-Y to $8.8bn. The company adits 2015 was a year lacking in desktop enterprise upgrades, and as such hopes 2016 will be the year of commercial transition from Windows 7 to Windows 10.

IBM CEO Ginni Rometty makes a perhaps unlikely keynote at CES 2016-- a company first stating the world is headed towards an era of cognitive computing powered by (what else?) Big Blue's Watson supercomputer.

"People see IBM as a hardware, services and software company, and we are," Rometty says. "But we are more than that. IBM now delivers a cognitive solution, a cloud platform and has partnerships that help us reach hundreds of millions-- if not billions-- of people."

To highlight how such cognitive solutions are the Big Blue keynote reveals key partnerships with Under Armour, Medtronic and SoftBank. The 3 companies leverage on Watson to crunch data (such as activity data from Under Armour product wearers or Medtronic blood test results) and gain valuable insights.

IBM confirms its investment in both the Internet of Things (IoT) and Europe with the opening of the global Watson IoT HQ in Munich, a 670000 square-foot facility based in the Highlight Towers.

Described by Big Blue as "one of the biggest investments that we've made in Europe," the facility employs over 1000 developers, consultants, researchers and designers. It is the centrepiece of 8 IBM global regional customer centres based in Beijing, Boeblingen (Germany), Sao Paulo, Seoul, Tokyo, Massachusetts, N. Carolina and Texas.

The centres deliver technology and tools for the creation of products and services through the Watson IoT Cloud Platform.

IBM continues buying strategic cloud services-- it acquires enterprise-grade cloud-based video content management services provider Clearleap for an unspecified sum.

The Clearleap video platform has a number of big customers, including HBO, The History Channel, Time Warner Cable and Verizon. It provides enterprises with cloud-based management of video content, complete with standard content management services such as search, policy application and movement through a work flow.

Post-acquisition the company will be integrated into the IBM Cloud platform.

Cisco sets to expand further into videoconferencing and collaboration, as it acquires London-based software and hardware vendor Acano for $700 million.

Acano makes collaboration infrastructure and conferencing software. It offers a portfolio complete with gateways and video/audio bridging technology allowing customers to connect video systems from multiple vendors across cloud and hybrid environments. Such capabilities are relevant for Cisco's interests, as the company says 90% of conference rooms lack video connections, marking an business opportunity in the segment.

So it finally happened-- Hewlett-Packard officially splits into 2 separate publicly listed companies, consumer-focused HP Inc and the self-descriptive Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE).

The split was announced little more than a year ago, and was done in the name of creating a pair of "smaller and nimbler" (not to mention more profitable) entities out of the 76-year old giant. HP Inc covers the PC and printer side of the business, while HPE handles enterprise hardware of the servers, networking and storage variety, as well as software and financial services.

"The winners in today's market will be those who apply the power of technology to fuel the power of ideas, and the new HPE is built to accelerate this journey for customers," CEO Meg Whitman says. "HPE has the vision, financial resources and flexibility to help customers win while generating growth and long-term value for our shareholders."