Judge tosses suits over IBM sale to GlobalFoundries

MALTA — IBM won a major legal victory Wednesday when a federal judge tossed two lawsuits that claimed the company botched its 2015 sale of its computer chip business to GlobalFoundries.

The sale, in which IBM paid GlobalFoundries $1.5 billion to take over its failing microelectronics manufacturing unit, helped to boslter the size and manufacturing prowess of GlobalFoundries, which employs 3,000 people at its Fab 8 computer chip factory in Saratoga County.

But the lawsuit alleged that for many years, IBM executives had concealed from view just how much money its chip business was losing and had overstated its value in regulatory filings up until its October 2014 announcement that it had struck a deal with GlobalFoundries to take over the business as well as its two chip "fabs" in East Fishkill in Dutchess County and Essex Junction, Vt. IBM ended up writing off billions of dollars from the sale, even though it had previously valued the business at $2.4 billion.

Shares of IBM fell nearly 20 percent on Oct. 20, 2014, the day that the sale to GlobalFondries was announced.

Read more: http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/Judge-tosses-suits-over-IBM-sale-to-9209767.php