A third shareholder law firm has launched an IBM investigation after the company cited weaker Z performance and delayed deal closures in its 2026 second-quarter miss.
International Business Machines Corporation is facing a third shareholder-law-firm investigation after Portnoy Law Firm said it is probing possible securities fraud tied to IBM's July 14, 2026 share-price plunge. The new inquiry adds to earlier investigations announced by Pomerantz LLP and Bleichmar Fonti & Auld LLP over whether IBM misled investors about deal momentum and the outlook for IBM Z. The stock decline followed IBM's release of its second-quarter 2026 financial results. IBM described the quarter as disappointing and said the miss reflected "a shortfall in our Z performance and the associated software stack, primarily in Transaction Processing." The company also said it had "faltered" and "did not adapt and move quickly enough," adding that "numerous large deals failed to close on the timelines we expected, driving the majority of our shortfall." Portnoy said IBM shares suffered a single-day intraday drop of more than $75 per share, exceeding 25%, on July 14. Pomerantz previously said the stock fell $73.16, or 25.21%, to close at $217.07 that day, highlighting differing ways the firms characterized the selloff. Portnoy is asking investors to contact Lesley F. Portnoy to discuss their legal rights.