“We said we expect similar performance, fourth quarter, as we just executed in third quarter, constant currency revenue growth, right?”

In context

“esting? And was there some transactional pull forward in mainframe from Q4 to Q3 this quarter? Or are you expecting some deceleration in transaction processing? Maybe you could kind of confirm the number for Q4 and then unpack it a little bit as to why it's below normal seasonality. Thank you. Jim Kavanaugh: Great. Toni, thanks very much for the question. I appreciate it. And I know Patricia really appreciates sticking to one question given it's her last call leading and piloting, and we thank her for all her efforts, but we'll have more time to celebrate in January. But as you stated, we remain confident in what our guidance is overall with regards to top-line revenue growth, 3% to 5%, albeit, as we said, low end. And that's just practically speaking given we have one more quarter to go. We said we expect similar performance, fourth quarter, as we just executed in third quarter, constant currency revenue growth, right? Let me unpack that to your point. First of all, at the macro level, historically, we would generate quarter-to-quarter about $2.9 billion-ish of revenue. Last year, by the way, we did $2.6 billion, up quarter-to-quarter in revenue. That $17.3 billion number in that ballpark, you're not too far off, is about equivalent to last year. It's about $2.6 billion. But I would tell you one thing underneath that, Toni, is we've seen a very different dramatic change in the currency FX U.S. dollar strengthening. To tune about $300 million, if you go look at the math, back into '19, 2020, 2021. So, underneath it, pretty consistent quarter-to-quarter performances last year, which by the way, I would highlight, was the peak of our ELA cycle last year and it was our strong first fourth quarter in a z16 e”