International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) announced that it will buy back $4 billion of its shares from investors, in addition to the previously scheduled $1.4 billion repurchase.
The information technology/cloud computing behemoth also mentioned plans to halt share buybacks in 2020 and 2021 to stock up enough cash for its $33 billion acquisition of open-source cloud software firm Red Hat. The acquisition deal, which would be the biggest for IBM so far, might close next year - subject to regulatory & shareholder approvals.
Shortly after announcing its Red Hat deal, IBM also confirmed that it will pay out, on December 10, a cash dividend of $1.57 per share. Since 1916, the company has been distributing dividends every quarter to shareholders.