Under the US securities fraud laws of the time, it seemed that when John Akers said in late 1992 that IBM Corp’s dividend was safe and the company subsequently slashed it in early 1993, shareholders that wanted to sue had the company bang to rights. But in a remarkable ruling, US District Judge Jed Rakoff in White Plains, New York, said that none of IBM’s statements about its dividend remotely smacks of fraud and that the statements that allegedly misled investors were short-term forecasts or statements of opinion, and thus were not false, misleading or actionable. The judge granted an IBM motion to dismiss the suit in early January, but did so without comment and said at the time he would issue a written order explaining his ruling at a later date.
