IBM misled investors by overestimating the impact of stock-based compensation expenses on quarterly earnings in 2005, US Securities & Exchange Commission said on Tuesday.
The securities regulator made the statement as it reached a settlement with International Business Machines Corp, in which the company agreed not to commit future disclosure violations.
The SEC did not impose any monetary penalties and IBM did not admit or deny SEC’s findings in the settlement announcement.

Troubling facts
“IBM misled investors by failing to disclose information that would have allowed them to accurately determine the impact that the company’s decision to expense stock options would have on its financial results,” SEC Associate Director of Enforcement Scott W. Friestad said in a statement. “The facts here are particularly troubling because the disclosure decision was driven, in part, by management’s perception of how the news would be interpreted by analysts,” Mr Friestad pointed out in the statement.
In an April 5, 2005, conference call, IBM led analysts to believe that the company expected stock option expenses to reduce first-quarter earnings by 14 cents per share and to reduce full-year earnings by 55 cents per share, the SEC said.  

Bags $45 m CBDT deal
Bangalore, dhns: The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) and IBM, announced, on Thursday, a US$45 million (Rs 205 crore), five year services agreement to modernise CBDT’s IT Infrastructure.
IBM will offer integrated infrastructure solutions to CBDT’s three data centres in Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai and facilities management services for Income Tax Department (ITD) across 745 offices in 510 cities in India.  The solution includes IBM’s high performing system  p servers, storage, security solution and host of other associated technologies and services.