IBM U.S. Job Cuts Top 1,500

IBM

Late Thursday, [email protected], a site operated by the Communications Workers of America, said more than 1,500 employees were terminated at IBM locations across the country Thursday, including job cuts in IBM's server, software and storage groups.

Meanwhile, a source close to IBM said more layoffs could come next week in IBM Global Services.

An IBM spokeswoman on Friday confirmed that there were job cuts in the respective groups but would not give the total number of layoffs. She said the job cuts were not part of a companywide workforce reduction.

IBM CEO Sam Palmisano said earlier this month in a meeting with analysts that IBM needs to cut costs by up to $2 billion this year.

But solution providers say that are not worried about the job cuts impacting their business. "Palmisano is a channels guy," said Joe Vaught, COO of PCPC, Houston. "I think he's got it figured out, and IBM is taking a leadership position with the channel."

The layoffs this week appeared to be a surgical workforce reduction. For example, Alliance@IBM said up to 50 jobs were cut at Tivoli in Austin, Texas, about 450 in the storage systems group in San Jose, Calif., and more than 500 in the server group at locations in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., Endicott, N.Y., Beaverton, Ore., and Rochester, Minn.