This was after a judge had decided that IBM was a bit naughty for swapping out BMC's mainframe software at AT&T with its own gear.

The 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals over in New Orleans reckoned the lower court judge had got it wrong when it came to who was liable.

Writing for the trio of judges, US Circuit Judge Edith Jones reckoned that AT&T, which is one of BMC's biggest customers, had gone over to IBM software on its own and that BMC had "lost out to IBM fair and square."

A spokesperson for BMC kept mum on the matter, while an IBM spokesperson was chuffed to bits, saying the company "acted in good faith in every aspect of this engagement" and was "grateful the court agrees."

AT&T, which isn't involved in the legal tussle, hasn't piped up with any comments just yet.

BMC, which hails from Houston, makes and flogs its own mainframe software. They had a deal with IBM that said IBM could look after mainframes running BMC software, but there was a "non-displacement" clause that stopped IBM from pushing BMC clients to switch to IBM's software, according to the court's decision.

AT&T had brought in IBM to handle its mainframe operations. BMC's lawsuit, filed in a Houston federal court, accused IBM of breaking their contract when AT&T ditched BMC's software for IBM's.

The decision on turned over US District Judge Gray Miller's verdict from 2022, which had IBM owing BMC a hefty $1.6 billion in damages for tearing up their agreement. Miller believed IBM had already slyly agreed to swap out BMC's software at AT&T behind closed doors when they shook hands on the contract back in 2015.