IBM faces a whistleblower lawsuit over alleged cover-up of foreign cyberattacks on US military systems, while a $10 billion quantum computing commitment and rocky Quantinuum IPO rattle investors.
Big Blue is caught in a pincer movement. On one side, a newly unsealed whistleblower lawsuit accuses the company of covering up years of foreign cyberattacks on systems used by the US military and federal agencies. On the other, a massive $10 billion commitment to quantum computing — including a rocky IPO for joint venture Quantinuum — has investors questioning the near-term returns.
The stock slid sharply on Friday, with reports showing a decline of between 5.18% and 5.54%, closing at 247.15 euros in one account and 246.20 euros in another. The drop puts IBM roughly 16% below its 52-week high of 292.85 euros, a peak reached just earlier this month on June 1. Over a 30-day horizon, however, the shares still show a gain of 28.62%, highlighting the volatile backdrop.
The whistleblower case, filed under seal in 2020 and now public, comes from former IBM Vice President of Threat Intelligence William Barlow. He alleges that IBM and partner AT&T deliberately concealed repeated intrusions by state-sponsored hackers, particularly the Chinese group APT 10, between 2013 and 2016. According to the complaint, APT 10 penetrated IBM’s network more than 56,000 times, compromising cloud infrastructure used by US government and military clients....
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