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Big IBM layoff coming, old blue is dying.

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Does anyone really believe this? If a firm is about to lose 26% of their workforce the CEO has to go as well. That's a significant amount of people. And if this is just to quiet the howls from Wall Street, then it's incredibly short-sighted. That CEO has been at the helm for a couple of years now and if this is the best she can come up with as a strategy for going forward then she's as good as done.
 
A good friend works for IBM and all he talks about is possible layoffs. Haven't spoke to him in about a couple months though. I hate to see him lose his job since he has a newborn and a wife going thru school for midwife.
 
Dari said:
Does anyone really believe this? If a firm is about to lose 26% of their workforce the CEO has to go as well. That's a significant amount of people. And if this is just to quiet the howls from Wall Street, then it's incredibly short-sighted. That CEO has been at the helm for a couple of years now and if this is the best she can come up with as a strategy for going forward then she's as good as done.
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Meh, Target CEO got something like $50 million for getting fired.

The guy who wanted to turn HP into a software company got over $10 million?

Getting fired as a CEO is like winning the lottery -- it may even be better than the lottery because you get taxes on your lottery winnings down south?
 
Yep my inside friend has said all meetings have been canceled this week. And now IBM has been getting hammered from the 100k layoff rumor that they had to come out and admit layoffs are coming but not 100k. Looks like in the 10-15k will be the real cull for this round. IBM likes to do layoffs in groups so I am thinking 10k range for the first one.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2015/01/26/ibm-denies-massive-layoffs/22381395/

http://money.cnn.com/2015/01/26/technology/ibm-layoffs/




jpiniero said:
Something like this isn't going to be communicated to employees before hand obviously.

IMO You should update your resume.
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Yep they don't tell anyone but if you went from a 1-2 rating for years to a 3 all of a sudden and all higher up meetings are getting canceled, take that as a hint what is coming.
 
Reality struck me that we may be headed for a future where nobody knows who IBM is. In circuitry class yesterday somebody asked "who's IBM?" That's like professor Frink getting an auditorium full of scientists to shut up by stating pi is exactly three.
 
Did they ever fix the middle management problem at IBM, or is that still what's dragging them down?

For those that don't know what the middle management problem is: IBM is old corporate culture, basically there's more "managers" than there are actual functional employees.
 
What I thought...

link

IBM Dismisses Report of Massive Layoffs
Tech Giant Says It Plans Smaller Number of Job Cuts; Report Had Said 26% of Staff

International Business Machines Corp. dismissed a report stating that massive new layoffs were coming this week for the computing giant.

A report in Forbes on Thursday said the company was preparing to cut its workforce by 26%, which would amount to the largest workforce reductions in IBM’s history and affect more than 100,000 employees.

In an emailed statement, an IBM spokesman reiterated management’s comments following its fourth-quarter financial results that a much smaller number of IBM employees are leaving the company as part of “rebalancing” actions, which are designed to create job openings to be able to hire people with new skills.

“IBM does not comment on rumors, even ridiculous or baseless ones,” the spokesman said. “If anyone had checked information readily available from our public earnings statements, or had simply asked us, they would know that IBM has already announced the company has just taken a $600 million charge for workforce rebalancing. This equates to several thousand people, a small fraction of what’s been reported.”

The spokesman added that the company currently has job openings as part of the rebalancing process.

“Last year, IBM hired 45,000 people, and the company currently has about 15,000 job openings around the world for new skills in growth areas such as cloud, analytics, security, and social and mobile technologies. This is evidence that IBM continues to remix its skills to match where we see the best opportunities in the marketplace,” the spokesman said.

IBM on Tuesday reported that fourth-quarter earnings declined 11% on revenue that fell 12%, marking the company’s 11th consecutive quarter without a revenue increase.
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resized_winter-is-coming-meme-generator-brace-yourselves-layoffs-are-coming-0aeb62.jpg
 
Dari said:
What I thought...

link
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"$600 million charge for workforce rebalancing. This equates to several thousand people"

The 26% yes is way high but layoffs are coming, they admitted it in their response.
That and they do layoffs in groups so the 600million is probably just for this quarter.
 
They can't layoff 100k without contingency. You are likely looking at 10-15k for the next couple of years. They need to sell off some of their assets as well.

They did that where I worked for years. It was a 3-4 year process after the hired the henchmen. They first "beautified" our campus, made it more secure, and then found potential buyers all behind our backs. That was sneaky as hell but everyone new better. Then, they started the layoffs in sequences that lasted 18-24 months. Most companies lease their property so its usually a matter of just waiting for the lease to be up. Not us!
 
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Layoffs have started, but they are playing it "smart" by not telling how many are going, just telling how many are going per location.
 
postmortemIA said:
Layoffs have started, but they are playing it "smart" by not telling how many are going, just telling how many are going per location.
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Yep my friend has told me they are doing it in pieces 500 here, 500 there, etc... And its all around the world as well. I know RTP in NC got hit already.

More to come today but IBM is not giving numbers so have to piece it together from all those walking out the door.
 
I can't think of many companies that would be shittier to work for than IBM. They've had mass layoffs even in years when their profit was through the roof. Firing people is a fucking sport over there.
 
For those wondering about Iowa (Dubuque); they laid off about 200 people yesterday. They've gone down from about 1300+ employees in 2011 to around 600 now. Won't be long now until they move out completely.

Edit: sounds like they signed a 5 year extension on their building lease, so they'll be around for that much longer at least (or at least the name on the building will be)

http://www.kwwl.com/story/27964533/2015/01/28/sources-ibm-layoffs-hitting-dubuque
 
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