Chicago (IL) – A bizarre rumor is making the rounds on the Internet – that IBM could be planning to fire more than 100,000 of its 350,000 employees. There isn’t a whole lot of substance to that rumor as of now, but sources told TG Daily that some of IBM’s operations may be in need of a restructuring, which in fact could result in massive layoffs.

From the outside, there is very little indication that IBM could be heading into a dramatic restructuring phase. Besides the fact that IBM has lost the title of the world’s largest IT company (from a revenue perspective) to HP in 2006, with the margin widening in the first quarter of the year, the firm’s business has remained very profitable: In 2006, profits reached $9.4 billion (HP: $6.2 billion) on revenues of $91.4 billion (HP: $91.7 billion). In the first quarter of this year, the company still managed to earn $1.8 billion, but revenues fell far behind HP - $22.0 billion vs. $25.1 billion.

I,Cringely reported that 1300 employees of IBM’s services division were let go early last week – a number we were able to confirm through three different industry sources familiar with these events. I,Cringely also mentioned that this could be just the beginning of a more dramatic move that could affect more than 100,000, possibly up to 150,000 IBM employees. If the company were to lay off 150,000 of its people, IBM would end up with around 200,000 employees – still substantially above the number of HP’s employee base (156,000).

According to I,Cringely, the restructuring is part of a plan called “LEAN”, which  apparently is scheduled to be completed within this year. Much of the layoffs could be hitting IBM’s services department; IBM employees to whom we talked and who requested to remain anonymous were unaware of such plans. However, a workforce reduction would not come totally unexpected, as some services departments are lacking direction, we were told, and have been operating under no dedicated budget this year.

IBM has not addressed the rumored layoffs so far.

District Service Manager

May 05, 2007 21:40     

One clue that the IBM service layoff is true is: Pitney Bowes just signed a large contract with IBM to provide field service for Stand Alone & Multi-function printers.
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Interresting

May 05, 2007 21:45     

Getting lean to absorb another company maybe? Maybe one they have done a lot of research for?
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Lucky Me

May 05, 2007 22:55     

I was one of the 1300 laid off. I consider myself blessed by God that I was let go first- if there is in fact another 100000 plus hitting the streets looking for a job at least I have a head start.
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A race to the bottom?

May 06, 2007 13:53     

What's going on with all the cost cutting in the past years? A race to the bottom? What happened to being the best and a race to the top? What am I missing?
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IBM is too bloated. It produces lower revenue than...

May 07, 2007 12:39     

IBM is too bloated. It produces lower revenue than HP, yet has more than twice HP's employees.
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Saw it coming

May 11, 2007 11:32     

I left IBM two years ago as a contractor for Global Services. I left because of the games they played with the customer. They would charge them for work that wasn't done. They would use money from a project that had not started yet and use it to on one that went over budget. I would only get paid if IBM could charge the client for my hours as a project. When a company has to play games with numbers you know they are circling the drain. May 24th is the next round of LEAN. I kept and copied every email and every IM message and every note on every project I ever did. I am glad I kept them I saw this coming.

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Yes its true

Jan 22, 2008 06:17     

Yes its true, and its happening in India
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True

Jan 22, 2008 06:52     

IBM has fired a lot of ELTPs in IBM-India. Is the above "LEAN" s for IBM global
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Seems its true

Jan 22, 2008 07:01     

This is true. IBM is playing really cheap tricks to layoff the employees
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Not at all true. Just Internet gossip

Jan 23, 2008 04:52     

I have not seen any Laying-off in India becoz of Lean.
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Shame on IBM!!!!!!!

Jan 23, 2008 09:04     

The news is true and it's all happening currently. IBM should be shameful for the way it is treating it's employees
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Shame on IBM!!!!!!!

Jan 23, 2008 09:07     

This is currently happening, IBM should be shameful for the way it's treating the employees.
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IBM is worst.........

Jan 24, 2008 01:30     

IBM is not giving any perticular reasons for firing out ......... IBM is worst company i heard.. you should think thrice or more than it when you are joining in this great (for name sake) company ....... IBM (no garunty for your career and no security for your job) So please avoid joing in IBM
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