IBM's historic stock crash: What triggered the 25% plunge?

IBM shares plunged about 25% on July 14 after warning that its second-quarter results would miss Wall Street estimates, wiping out approximately 70 billion dollars in market value. The company expects Q2 revenue of about 17.2 billion dollars against analyst expectations of nearly 17.9 billion dollars, with adjusted EPS projected at 2.93 dollars. The selloff dragged down global software stocks including Microsoft, Salesforce, ServiceNow, and Intuit, as IBM cited customers redirecting IT budgets toward AI infrastructure at the expense of software purchases, with implications for the global IT services sector including Indian peers.