IBM Must Pay $1.6 Billion in BMC Case, Federal Judge Orders

IBM must pay $1.6 billion to BMC Software for swapping in its own software while servicing their mutual client, a Houston federal judge ruled. From a report: US District Judge Gray Miller, after a seven-day non-jury trial, rejected IBM's claim that their mutual client AT&T opted to switch software products on its own and ruled that IBM's role in the decision to dump BMC "smacked of intentional wrongdoing." For more than a decade, IBM serviced AT&T's mainframe computers, which ran on rival BMC's software products. IBM and BMC have long operated under a carefully negotiated agreement that forbids IBM from encouraging mutual clients, like AT&T, to switch to IBM's competing software product line. BMC sued IBM in 2017 claiming its rival intended to breach their agreement and poach 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 for its own reasons, which IBM claims is fair game under its BMC agreement.

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