IBM Plans to Cut as Many as 8,000 Jobs By July, WSJ Reports
By Vivien Lou Chen
quote.bloomberg.com
Armonk, New York, May 10 (Bloomberg) -- International Business Machines Corp. will slash as many as 8,000 jobs by July to counter a slowdown in technology spending, the Wall Street Journal said, citing a person familiar with the matter.
The cuts represent about 2.5 percent of IBM's worldwide workforce, the paper said. The affected jobs won't be across the board and won't include about 17,000 employees being transferred to a new joint venture with Japan's Hitachi Ltd., it said.
Sales at IBM, the world's largest seller of computer services and hardware, have missed forecasts by $1 billion in the past two quarters. The computer maker, whose shares are the worst performers in the Dow Jones Industrial Average this year, has 320,000 workers worldwide.
IBM spokesman Bill Hughes declined to comment.
The company said last month that its first-quarter sales and profit fell more than analysts had expected, raising speculation about possible cuts. |
