IBM to End Its Sponsorship of Olympics

IBM Corp. pulled its sponsorship of the Olympic Games, ending a 38-year relationship, saying the costs of providing technical expertise for the international event became too high. IBM, whose technology handled everything from keeping scores to posting results on the Internet, said it will continue its sponsorship through the 2000 Games in Sydney, Australia. The world’s largest computer maker spent more than $100 million to sponsor the Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan, earlier this year and was a prominent sponsor of the 1996 Games in Atlanta, where some technical glitches were widely publicized. Shares of Armonk, N.Y.-based IBM fell 63 cents to close at $129.13 on the New York Stock Exchange.