On July 14, 1789, the people of Paris stormed the Bastille, signaling a violent end to the absolute authority of the ancien régime. Today, on that very same date, (albeit 237 years later) the stock market staged its own financial revolution against the ancien régime of technology: International Business Machines.

IBM shares fell just over $73 to ~$217 — a jaw-dropping 25% single-day decapitation. It is the steepest single-session drop in my lifetime, matching a scale of destruction not seen since January 3, 1968, before I was born.

The catalyst for this sudden coup was a preliminary Q2 sales miss. IBM reported revenue of $17.2 billion, falling short of Wall Street’s $17.9 billion expectations, driven by a 7% slide in its…