Advertisement
Singapore markets closed

  • Straits Times Index

    3,307.90
    -6.15 (-0.19%)
     

  • Nikkei

    38,719.35
    -227.58 (-0.58%)
     

  • Hang Seng

    19,299.22
    +78.60 (+0.41%)
     

  • FTSE 100

    8,416.45
    -7.75 (-0.09%)
     

  • Bitcoin USD

    70,018.15
    -1,297.74 (-1.82%)
     

  • CMC Crypto 200

    1,522.33
    +33.79 (+2.27%)
     

  • S&P 500

    5,321.41
    +13.28 (+0.25%)
     

  • Dow

    39,872.99
    +66.22 (+0.17%)
     

  • Nasdaq

    16,832.62
    +37.75 (+0.22%)
     

  • Gold

    2,421.90
    -4.00 (-0.16%)
     

  • Crude Oil

    79.06
    -0.20 (-0.25%)
     

  • 10-Yr Bond

    4.4140
    -0.0230 (-0.52%)
     

  • FTSE Bursa Malaysia

    1,622.09
    -5.41 (-0.33%)
     

  • Jakarta Composite Index

    7,208.57
    +22.54 (+0.31%)
     

  • PSE Index

    6,611.37
    -22.29 (-0.34%)
     

UPDATE 2-IBM wins reversal of $1.6 billion judgment to BMC over software contract

Jonathan Stempel and Blake Brittain
·2-min read

(Adds IBM comment in paragraph 3)

By Jonathan Stempel and Blake Brittain

April 30 (Reuters) - A federal appeals court on Tuesday overturned a judgment requiring IBM to pay rival BMC Software $1.6 billion, after a judge found IBM improperly replaced BMC's mainframe software at AT&T with its own.

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans said a lower court judge's determination concerning liability was in error. Writing for a three-judge panel, U.S. Circuit Judge Edith Jones said AT&T, one of BMC's biggest clients, had switched to IBM software "independently" and that BMC had "lost out to IBM fair and square."

ADVERTISEMENT

A BMC spokesperson declined to comment. An IBM spokesperson said in a statement that the company "acted in good faith in every aspect of this engagement" and is "grateful the court agrees."

Representatives for AT&T, which is not a party to the case, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Houston-based BMC develops and licenses proprietary mainframe software products. Under an agreement, IBM can maintain and operate mainframes running BMC software with a "non-displacement" provision that limits IBM from switching BMC clients' software to IBM's, the ruling said.

AT&T hired IBM to manage its mainframe operations. BMC's lawsuit in Houston federal court accused IBM of breaching their contract when AT&T abandoned its software for IBM's.

Tuesday's ruling overturned U.S. District Judge Gray Miller's 2022 decision that IBM owed BMC $1.6 billion in damages for breaking their agreement. Miller said IBM had already secretly agreed to replace BMC's software at AT&T when it negotiated the contract in 2015. (Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York and Blake Brittain in Washington Editing by Chris Reese and Richard Chang)