IBM Downgraded by S&P as Deal Spree Clouds Ability to Cut Debt The credit rater expects IBM to pursue additional takeovers to bolster its hybrid cloud and artificial intelligence capabilities. Bloomberg | May 06, 2021 Molly Smith and Molly Schuetz (Bloomberg) -- International Business Machines Corp. was downgraded by S&P Global Ratings because an acquisition spree adds doubt to the company’s timeline for reducing debt. S&P cut IBM one notch to A- with a stable outlook, according to a report Thursday. The credit rater expects IBM to pursue additional takeovers to bolster its hybrid cloud and artificial intelligence capabilities. Coupled with the planned spinoff of its managed infrastructure services business, there’s uncertainty IBM can reduce leverage to a certain level in the next year or two, S&P said.