The company angered Wall Street, which believes that an announcement on April 5 that it would begin to treat share options to employees as an expense exaggerated the effect on profits to lessen the impact on April 14 of weaker-than-expected first-quarter earnings.
In a brief announcement, IBM said it was informed by the SEC that the informal investigation is not an indication that any violations of law have occurred.
In its first quarter, IBM reported earnings of $0.85 cents a share while analysts polled by Thomson/First Call had been expecting $0.90 cents a share.
