Fishy indeed.
"To paint a darker picture, it seems like dividend growth is being used to blind investors; growth in dividends feels a lot like growth in the business. That's often true because dividends mirror business health and growth. Here we have IBM using debt and buybacks to create the appearance of growth. And, why can't more money flow into real business growth? Why can't the strategic imperatives grow even faster? Something smells fishy to me. I'm getting more and more uncomfortable with my investment in IBM."
https://seekingalpha.com/article/4098572-ibms-4_2-percent-dividend-yield-killing-strategic-imperatives