IBM – Financial Treason & Crime

Lauren Ohnesorge, 01 April 2021

A software firm is suing Red Hat and its parent company, IBM, claiming they “conspired to illegally corner a market and crush competition.”

In a copyright infringement and antitrust lawsuit filed Wednesday in a district court in the Virgin Islands, software firm Xinuous claims IBM “stole” its intellectual property “and used that stolen property to build and sell a product to compete with Xinuous itself.” Continue reading “Article: Software company sues IBM, Red Hat, claims they ‘conspired’ to ‘crush’ competitors”

09/30/201902/23/2021

Article: Do Stock Buybacks Work?

Article - Media, Publications

Do Stock Buybacks Work?

MBI Concepts, 30 September 2019

It is hard to convince shareholders that share buybacks don’t work. The logic just seems so darn rational: reduce the supply of something and demand will drive the price of that something up. One investor on Seeking Alpha, a financial markets forum, commented that “I want to be the last person holding that last share worth $100+ billion dollars!

Trying to respond to such an individual is reminiscent of what Dale Carnegie wrote decades ago that a man convinced against his will is of the same opinion still. The individual’s comment completely overlooks the demand side of the supply-and-demand equation. The market today doesn’t consider IBM worth much over $140 a share despite its spending $201 billion on its shares since 1995–double its market value at the end of 2018. Still, some insist that if the corporation buys back enough shares the scarcity will increase shareholder value.
Continue reading “Article: Do Stock Buybacks Work?”

10/20/201402/23/2021

Article: The Truth Hidden by IBM’s Buybacks

Article - Media, Publications

The Truth Hidden by IBM’s Buybacks

ANDREW ROSS SORKIN, 20 October 2014

For many years, the International Business Machines Corporation’s earnings glided smoothly upward. Every quarter, IBM would report higher earnings per share. Even Warren Buffett invested in the company, disregarding his long-held aversion to technology companies as too challenging to forecast.

Virginia M. Rometty, IBM’s chief executive — and recently anointed the most powerful woman in business by Fortune magazine — has talked a good game about focusing on “shareholder value.” For the first several years of her tenure, she managed to prop up the stock by buying back shares by the cartload. In the first six months of this year, the company spent more than $12 billion — that’s billion with a “b” — on its own shares. She’s also been sending shareholders thank-you presents in the form of large dividends.
Continue reading “Article: The Truth Hidden by IBM’s Buybacks”

10/19/201104/27/2020

Testimony: Kauffman Foundation on ETFs Danger to Capital Formation

Testimony

ETFs and the Present Danger to Capital Formation

Prepared Testimony by Harold Bradley and Robert E. Litan

Before the United States Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Subcommittee on Securities, Insurance, and Investments

ETFs have increasingly distorted the role of equities
markets in capital formation, while posing systemic risks from potential
settlement failures.

Continue reading “Testimony: Kauffman Foundation on ETFs Danger to Capital Formation”

04/12/200605/19/2020

Web: The Geese Are Beginning to Be Slaughtered

Web

The Geese Are Beginning to Be Slaughtered

Bud Burrell, Chris Clair

HedgeWorld cited by Sanity Check via Wayback, 12 April 2006

U.S. defined benefit pension plans have been upping their allocations to alternative investments, including hedge funds, in recent years, helping boost hedge fund assets to above the $1 trillion mark.

But defined benefit plans, particularly in the corporate world, are facing big problems. They are almost universally underfunded, they face a future with more retirees than ever thanks to longer life expectancies and younger retirement ages, and those retirees are receiving better benefits than in the past. A number of companies, including IBM Corp., Verizon Communications Inc., Motorola Inc., and Lockheed Martin Corp., have announced they are freezing their defined benefit plans, the first step toward eliminating them altogether.

Access archived page.

10/25/197802/23/2021

Article: SEC Alleges Manipulation Of IBM Stock

Article - Media, Publications

SEC Alleges Manipulation Of IBM Stock

John F. Berry, 25 October 1978

The Securities and Exchange Commission has ordered an adminstrative hearing into the alleged manipulation of the price of the stock of International Business Machines Corp. by several Chicago broke-dealers. In a brief announcement yesterday the SEC alleged that broker-dealers sought to manipulate IBM shares through a series of transactions on the New York Stock Exchange and the Chicago Board Options Exchange.

The SEC named Chicago Financial Partnership, Jameco Investments, Thomas J. Connelly Jr. III, Philip J. Dalman, James M. Chipman, Gail J. Connelly and Michael A. Faberburg, all of the .Chicago area.The SEC, which alleges fraud and manipulation of the market by certain of the Chicagoans, claims the series of questionable transactions took place during the week of July 11, 1977.
Continue reading “Article: SEC Alleges Manipulation Of IBM Stock”