
New York (AP) -- For the first time in years, there were no major trouble spots in IBM's vast product line. Both personal computers and large systems sold well and Lotus Development Corp., which IBM acquired last summer, shipped an astounding 1.2 million copies of its Notes program. "Our fundamental strategies are working," IBM chief executive Louis V. Gerstner Jr. said in a statement. ... Changes in the general export laws seemed unlikely so Lotus negotiated an interim solution. "This protects corporate information from malicious crackers but permits the government to retain their current access," Ozzie said. Simson Garfinkel, author and computer security expert, said he's not sure international buyers of Notes will like the solution. "Foreign companies don't want the U.S. government to spy on their data any more than the U.S. government wants foreign companies to be able to spy on theirs," Garfinkel said. ... But IBM said nothing about the future, causing some nervousness among the investors who have seen other technology companies project a flat performance in the next few months. "It was a good quarter but the bad news is we've got to go and find out what's going to happen in 1996," said David Wu, analyst at Chicago Corp. Questions have been raised about the timing of IBM's June acquisition of Lotus -- a $3.5 billion deal that was the software industry's largest ever -- because World Wide Web-related programs seemed to be eclipsing the need for Lotus' Notes, a communications and database program.
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