Court Orders IBM To Pay $1.6B To BMC In Lawsuit Involving AT&T

• A Houston federal judge ordered International Business Machines Corp (NYSE:IBM) to pay $1.6 billion to BMC Software Inc. for swapping in its software while servicing their mutual client, Bloomberg reports.
• The U.S. District Judge Gray Miller, after a seven-day non-jury trial, rejected IBM’s claim that their mutual client AT&T Inc (NYSE:T), opted to switch software products on its own.
• The judge ruled that IBM’s role in the decision to dump BMC “smacked of intentional wrongdoing.”
• BMC prosecuted IBM in 2017, alleging breach of their agreement and poaching of AT&T’s software business when the two companies renewed their power-sharing deal in 2015. 
• IBM countered that AT&T dumped BMC’s products and jumped to IBM, claiming a clean chit.
• IBM serviced AT&T’s mainframe computers for over ten years, which ran on rival BMC’s software products.
• Price Action: IBM shares traded higher by 0.17% at $139.50 on the last check Tuesday.
• Photo by Okan Caliskan from Pixabay