Open Market Transactions are in Addition to $12.5 Billion Accelerated Share Repurchases Announced in May
ARMONK, N.Y. -- Dec. 3, 2007 IBM (NYSE: IBM) announced today that it plans to repurchase up to $1 billion of its outstanding common stock in open market transactions by the end of February 2008.
These repurchases, originally planned for March and April of 2008, are in addition to a $12.5 billion accelerated share repurchase announced earlier this year.
"These stock repurchases are enabled by IBM's strong, consistent cash flow and are an important way of returning value to IBM shareholders," said Samuel J. Palmisano, IBM chairman, president and chief executive officer. "They are an element of our long-term roadmap for earnings per share growth through 2010 and also represent a good value at today's prices."
In April the IBM board of directors authorized $15 billion for the company's stock repurchase program. In May IBM announced it would repurchase $12.5 billion of its outstanding common stock from three banks through accelerated share repurchase agreements that will conclude at the end of February 2008.
At the end of September, IBM had approximately $1.7 billion remaining for stock repurchases from the April authorization.
Additional information about this share repurchase activity is available at IBM's investor web site at:
http://www.ibm.com/investor/viewpoint/i ... 03-1.phtml