Fifth Circuit reverses $1.6 billion judgment in IBM case

(CN) - A Fifth Circuit panel ruled Tuesday that a federal court improperly awarded $1.6 billion to a BMC Software, a Houston-based software company, over a licensing and competition dispute with tech giant IBM.

Both companies had worked on AT&T's mainframe systems, with BMC licensing its software to the telecommunications company and IBM providing the hardware. In 2008, the two companies agreed to let I