IBM agreed to pay $20 million to settle a shareholders lawsuit that claimed the company misled the public about employee stock-option expenses in 2005. The lawsuit, brought on behalf of shareholders who bought IBM common stock in April 2005, alleged IBM manipulated expectations for its first-quarter earnings announcement in 2005. A year earlier, the Securities and Exchange Commission determined that IBM’s conduct had violated federal law, but it did not amount to fraud. See related IBM instance, “Providing Materially Misleading Financial Statements.”