REPORT: IBM Has Started To Lay Off Thousands Of Workers Worldwide

KEVIN MCLAUGHLIN JUN. 12, 2013, 7:48 PM

http://www.businessinsider.com/ibm-begins-layoffs-2013-6

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/ibm-begins-layoffs-2013-6#ixzz2W4o1WTBE

IBM started laying off employees on Wednesday, Bloomberg's Sarah Frier reports.

IBM said in April it plans to spend $1 billion on severance and other costs to shrink its work force.

Laurence Balter, an analyst at Oracle Investment Research who's quoted in the Bloomberg story, said this would add up to between 6,000 and 8,000 jobs.

That range of layoffs "sounds about right," IBM union organizer Lee Conrad told us. Conrad has been sounding the alarm on smaller IBM layoffs for months.

IBM is cutting all kinds of employees, from "rank-and-file staff to executives," according to Frier's sources.

The tech and consulting company had 434,246 employees worldwide at the end of 2012, so these cuts would amount to less than 2%.

IBM in April missed Wall Street's estimates for the first time since 2005.

The company's Research Triangle Park, N.C. location, where IBM does engineering for many of its server and storage products, reported 200 jobs cuts today, one IBM insider told us.

Needless to say, the mood there is grim.

"From what I saw at work today, IBMers were pale, antsy, and stressed out. It's not pretty," the IBM insider said.

IBM also shopped its low-end server business to Lenovo, but those talks fizzled last month.

In a videotaped speech to IBM employees after April's earnings, CEO Virginia Rometty urged them to step up their game.

"Where we haven't transformed rapidly enough, we struggled. We have to step up with that and deal with that, and that is on all levels," she said in the video.

An IBM spokesperson declined to comment on the reported layoff numbers but sent us the following statement via email:

"Change is constant in the technology industry and transformation is an essential feature of our business model," the spokesperson said. "Consequently, some level of workforce remix is a constant requirement for our business."

IBM裁員首波砍1300人

中央社 – 2013年6月13日下午1:22

（中央社台北13日電）據勞工組織Alliance@IBM指出，全球最大電腦服務供應商國際商業機器公司（International Business Machines Corp.）昨天在美國展開裁員動作，如今至少已砍了1300人。

Alliance@IBM協調員康拉德（Lee Conrad表示，這波裁員，軟體事業行銷部門至少砍了222人，半導體研發部門則占了165人。Alliance@IBM隸屬美國通訊工人協會（Communications Workers of America）旗下。

IBM第1季財報未達標後，4月宣布將展開全球重組，其中包括這波裁員在內。

不願具名的消息人士透露，這波裁員鎖定資深員工，從基層人員到高階主管不等。

IBM宣布全球重組計將花費10億美元，其中包括資遣費。

康拉德表示：「這波裁員殃及各地的各事業部門。」

據彭博彙整的數據顯示，IBM公布上季每股獲利3美分，未達分析師預估的3.05美元，是2005年首度獲利未達標。IBM當時宣布，這波裁員將鎖定海外事業，6月底以前有望落實。

甲骨文投資研究公司（Oracle InvestmentResearch）分析師包特（Laurence Balter）表示，根據10億美元重組費用計算，IBM將在全球裁員6000至8000人。在截至去年12月31日為止，IBM有員工43萬4246人，這波裁員占IBM總人力比重不到2%。（譯者：中央社趙蔚蘭）

All around the world

2013年6月13日