“Our tax rate for the year should be in the mid-teens, and as always, the timing of discrete items can cause the rate to vary within the year.”

In context

“. In Software, given the strength of our portfolio, investment in innovation and the contribution from acquisitions, we expect revenue growth approaching double-digits. We continue to see the strength in Red Hat with mid-teens growth for the year. In Consulting, the combination of our backlog levels, record signings in the fourth quarter, and our book of business in GenAI support an acceleration in growth to low-single-digits. And with our new mainframe launch in mid-2025, we expect Infrastructure to be about a point contribution to IBM's overall revenue growth. For the full year, we expect IBM's operating pre-tax margin to expand by over 0.5 point. Portfolio mix and ongoing productivity initiatives continue to drive margin expansion, mitigated by the impact of dilution from acquisitions. Our tax rate for the year should be in the mid-teens, and as always, the timing of discrete items can cause the rate to vary within the year. For free cash flow, we expect to generate about $13.5 billion in 2025. Given the strong fundamentals of our business, we expect double-digit adjusted EBITDA growth, which is the primary driver of our free cash flow. This will be offset by cash tax headwinds and higher CapEx. Our productivity initiatives have enabled investments in innovation, skills, and go-to-market capabilities, including our ecosystem. We have accomplished this while simultaneously growing our operating profit margin and free cash flow, which in turn has increased our financial flexibility. This remains our playbook going forward, having executed on $3.5 billion of annual run rate savings exiting 2024, supporting our strong free cash flow growing in excess of revenue. Looking to the first quarter, I expect our constant”