IBM Layoffs 2015: Tech Firm Denies Rumors Of Massive Sackings; Slams Forbes Report

By Staff Reporter | Jan 26, 2015 08:28 PM EST

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IBM Layoffs 2015 - IBM denied rumors that claimed the company was on the verge of implementing massive sackings of its employees. On Monday, Forbes magazine reported the tech firm will be laying of at least 112,000 employees.

Renowned technology giant, IBM, denied rumors that they are cutting 26 percent of its workforce. The company slammed layoff reports and said those were just "ridiculous speculations." According to Reuters, the rumors came after the firm's latest earnings report was disclosed last week. In an emailed statement, the tech giant the earning reductions will affect a small portion of its employees.

The layoff rumors was denied by IBM on Monday. The Guardian reported that an American technology blogger wrote that IBM was about to announce its plans to cut more than a quarter of its global workforce. The blogger also added the over a 100,000 sackings was known internally under the scheme called, "Project Chrome."

For several years, IBM has been gradually altering its more than 400,000 employees, laying off workers in some areas and hiring in new growth business.

"To fix its business problems and speed up its 'transformation' ... about 26% of IBM's employees will be getting phone calls from their managers," tech blogger Robert Cringely wrote. "A few hours later a package will appear on their doorsteps with all the paperwork. Project Chrome will hit many of the worldwide services operations."

However, IBM promptly denied these rumors stating the news was strongly inaccurate.

"IBM does not comment on rumors, even ridiculous or baseless ones," the company 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 $600m charge for workforce rebalancing. This equates to several thousand people, a small fraction of what's been reported."

During the tech giant's fourth quarter earnings last week, Chief Financial Officer Martin Schroeter told investors through a conference call that the company was restructuring charges of around $580 million. However, Schroeter did not divulge any specific number of jobs affected.

"We are not going to replicate the same level of restructuring that we had last year," Schroeter stated. "It will be a lower amount."

Meanwhile, between Thursday, when the report was posted online and IBM's Monday morning denial, ABC News reported the tech firm's shares increased to about 4 percent to peak at $159.46. And the stock closed up just 49 cents at $156.36.

Though IBM is currently facing major sales drop as it struggles to adjust to huge variations in software trades and other commercial technology, it denied layoff rumors.

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