IBM Makes Small Number Of Layoffs

The layoffs are part of the 14,500 jobs cuts that were announced in May by IBM CFO Mark Loughridge, sources said. By October, IBM had announced that it was 90 percent of the way through the restructuring. The cuts this week are part of the final phase of those earlier announced job cuts.

IBM would not comment.

IBM had announced in May plans to lay off 10,000 to 13,000 workers worldwide, with most of the cuts coming in Europe. At that time, IBM took a pretax charge of between $1.3 billion and $1.7 billion for its second quarter ended June 30.

The company ended 2004 with a total of 329,000 employees. Some 10,000 shifted to Lenovo when IBM completed the sale of its $11.5 billion PC division to Lenovo.

All of the IBM cuts came after the computer giant announced disappointing earnings for its first quarter. At that time, IBM Chairman and CEO Sam Palmisano promised "aggressive action" to cut costs and improve performance.