[Jobs] IBM Possibly Prepping For the Largest Ever Corporate Layoff

I didn't know IBM was still in business.

What do they make now? Do they still make computers?

 

IBM is a mafia.

 

400,000+ people consulting!

Actually IBM has its tentacles in all sorts of crap.

 

Yeah, a lot of consulting. They'll tell you what handheld commerce and social media look like from their firm seat in the 1980's. Pretty interesting service, if you have money to spend on comedy.

Spoiler

j/k i dunno

 

IBM is the largest IT services company and the second largest software company.

 

It is an interesting commentary on the journalism industry than one dumbazz can start a rumor and have it trickle through the interwebz and get real traction like this without any real basis in reality.

To the person that said IBM didn't deny it...they did everything but deny it. And it's bad precedent to comment on crap like this.

It's really hard to change a stale culture in a dynamic world. It would have been great if they started this 10 years ago. Unfortunately they have to play major catch up and are not cool enough to do it alone. Fortunately they can buy just about anything and will eventually figure it out

 

Cringely has been blogging about IBM for some time now, and most of it has been very doom and gloom. I think it is clear that he is talking with a lot of IBMers based on the detail that he is able to share with readers. A part of me wishes that senior management leaked a bunch of different plans to various people on the leadership team to see what details would get leaked (code names, numbers, etc.) to identify the source. That would be hilarious, you'd discredit Crowley and you'd have a headcount worth reducing :grin:

Cringely has already started walking back his original report stating he never threw out a number (he threw out a percentage) and that the overall impact would be a combination of moves which would result in a lower overall headcount. Will be an interesting couple of days/weeks...

 

The numbers on the initial report did sound too ridiculous to be true.

 

http://www.forbes.com/sites/benkepe...axe-starts-chopping-widespread-layoffs-begin/

 

All the things that were bolded have been happening at IBM for over 10 years. No one ever argued that IBM isn't in a very good situation after chasing margin and profit for the last decade, but the 100k number was pure fiction and was made to sell books.

IBM's problem is that they have been chasing margin since Gerstner retired and turned around the company. Instead of reinvesting the 4-8 billion dollars a quarter in profit in new growth areas, they used it to buy back shares to raise the earnings per share number. Squeezing blood out of a turnip is never a good growth strategy.

With all that being said, they made a very good strategic move with the softlayer acquisition. It's probably the most important acquisition they have made since the 90's. Let's hope they don't screw it all up.

 

Damn, bad form dude. Bad karma too.

 

He's parroting a genuine response from someone in the Oil and Gas thread in the hangout.

I don't think he's serious.

 

They're losing business and licenses to the cloud.

IBM sells the machines, then tells clients that they need IBM consultants to run or build on top of them through five digit+ annual fees

 

IBM made bill gates by licensing DOS.