IBM’s CEO Ginni Rometty is to be “rewarded” for 15 straight quarters of declining sales and the slow but sure erosion of the firm’s share price with a not inconsiderable $4.5 million bonus.

Rometty, whose base salary amounts to $1.6 million a year, actually declined to accept last year’s $3.6 million bonus, saying that she was disappointed at the company’s output. However, she made no such gesture this year, even though the company’s financial performance continues to disappoint shareholders.

IBM’s struggle to reinvent itself in the face of dogged cloud upstarts chipping away at its legacy businesses has been well-documented in these pages. Big Blue isn’t alone in this endeavor, as companies like Microsoft, Dell Inc., EMC Corp. and others are all battling to keep revenues growing by offering a range of cloud-based ‘services’ to offset the reduced demand for traditional on-premises hardware and software.

But IBM’s pivot has arguably been more challenging than most, and has seen the company offload its x86 server and chip making businesses while it can still demand a healthy price tag for them. Dumping those assets has given the company more time to focus on building out its cloud offerings, especially its SoftLayer cloud and Watson cloud services, but that transition has yet to deliver the kind of financial rewards shareholders might have hoped for.

It’s not for a lack of trying though. Since Rometty took over the IBM hot seat, the company has acquired more than 30 companies, most of which build and sell cloud services and software. Rometty’s focus has primarily been on analytics, cloud, mobility and security, which account for 35 percent of the firm’s revenues today.

But the numbers don’t lie, and IBM’s annual revenues under Rometty’s leadership have slumped from $104.5 billion in 2012 to just $81.7 billion at the end of 2015. Meanwhile the company’s net profit has also slumped, from $16.6 billion in 2012 to just $14.7 billion last year. And as for IBM’s share price, it’s taken quite an alarming tumble, down from $215 per share in November 2014 to just $124 a share today.

Still, it seems IBM’s board is happy enough with Rometty’s performance. While it”s still not clear if the company’s transition will bear fruit, those who’re running the show don’t need any more convincing.

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