IBM Corp plans to lay off about 5,000 US employees in a new round of job cuts, a source said.
The move reflects IBM’s aggressiveness in shifting labor to lower-cost regions like India and keeping its profits aloft at a time when other technology companies’ earnings are tumbling.
An IBM manager knowledgeable about the plans said the cuts would come from the services division and workers were to be informed yesterday.
PHOTO: BLOOMBERG
The person spoke on condition of anonymity on Wednesday because he was not authorized to discuss the plan publicly.
The layoffs were reported earlier by the Wall Street Journal.
The cuts will affect about 4 percent of IBM’s US-based work force, which totaled 115,000 at the end of last year.
In a sign of how quickly IBM is staffing up in emerging markets, last year IBM had nearly as many workers in Brazil, China, India and Russia — 113,000 — as it did in the US.
IBM now has about 400,000 employees worldwide.
The Journal reported last week that IBM was in talks to buy computer server company Sun Microsystems Inc and the Indian press has reported that IBM may be interested in fraud-hit software services exporter Satyam Computer Services.
India’s Economic Times said yesterday the board of Satyam had short-listed about eight bidders, including IBM and private equity firm Apax Partners, for buying the fraud-hit outsourcer. IBM has registered its interest through a law firm, it said.
Unlike many other tech companies that have recently announced layoffs, IBM has managed to become more profitable despite the recession.
IBM’s cost-cutting, global footprint and focus on services and software, which are often more lucrative than hardware, are key reasons why.
IBM’s net income was up 18 percent last year to US$12.3 billion.
In January, Armonk, New York-based IBM cut thousands of US jobs in sales, software and hardware. IBM didn’t give the precise number, saying it fell below an amount that would require disclosure.
Other tech companies are also doing big layoffs.
Hewlett-Packard Co is slashing 24,600 positions, or 8 percent of its 320,000-strong workforce, in a three-year restructuring as part of its acquisition of Electronic Data Systems Corp (EDS).
HP paid US$13.9 billion for EDS to compete against IBM for technology-services contracts.
Microsoft Corp said in January it was cutting 5,000 jobs — marking the first mass layoffs in the company’s history — after profit in the latest quarter fell 11 percent to US$4.17 billion.
STILL COMMITTED: The US opposes any forced change to the ‘status quo’ in the Strait, but also does not seek conflict, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said US President Donald Trump’s administration released US$5.3 billion in previously frozen foreign aid, including US$870 million in security exemptions for programs in Taiwan, a list of exemptions reviewed by Reuters showed. Trump ordered a 90-day pause on foreign aid shortly after taking office on Jan. 20, halting funding for everything from programs that fight starvation and deadly diseases to providing shelters for millions of displaced people across the globe. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has said that all foreign assistance must align with Trump’s “America First” priorities, issued waivers late last month on military aid to Israel and Egypt, the
France’s nuclear-powered aircraft carrier and accompanying warships were in the Philippines yesterday after holding combat drills with Philippine forces in the disputed South China Sea in a show of firepower that would likely antagonize China. The Charles de Gaulle on Friday docked at Subic Bay, a former US naval base northwest of Manila, for a break after more than two months of deployment in the Indo-Pacific region. The French carrier engaged with security allies for contingency readiness and to promote regional security, including with Philippine forces, navy ships and fighter jets. They held anti-submarine warfare drills and aerial combat training on Friday in
COMBAT READINESS: The military is reviewing weaponry, personnel resources, and mobilization and recovery forces to adjust defense strategies, the defense minister said The military has released a photograph of Minister of National Defense Wellington Koo (顧立雄) appearing to sit beside a US general during the annual Han Kuang military exercises on Friday last week in a historic first. In the photo, Koo, who was presiding over the drills with high-level officers, appears to be sitting next to US Marine Corps Major General Jay Bargeron, the director of strategic planning and policy of the US Indo-Pacific Command, although only Bargeron’s name tag is visible in the seat as “J5 Maj General.” It is the first time the military has released a photo of an active
CHANGE OF MIND: The Chinese crew at first showed a willingness to cooperate, but later regretted that when the ship arrived at the port and refused to enter Togolese Republic-registered Chinese freighter Hong Tai (宏泰號) and its crew have been detained on suspicion of deliberately damaging a submarine cable connecting Taiwan proper and Penghu County, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement yesterday. The case would be subject to a “national security-level investigation” by the Tainan District Prosecutors’ Office, it added. The administration said that it had been monitoring the ship since 7:10pm on Saturday when it appeared to be loitering in waters about 6 nautical miles (11km) northwest of Tainan’s Chiang Chun Fishing Port, adding that the ship’s location was about 0.5 nautical miles north of the No.
RSS