IBM To Undergo The Biggest Layoff In Corporate History; 26% of Global Workforce May Be Axed
As per reports coming in from major technological and business publications from around the world, it appears that IBM is all set to execute world’s largest layoff event as 26% or roughly 1,12,115 employees from all over the world can be fired in coming days.
As per a report published in Forbes, such a large scale firing of employees will be initiated to increase IBM’s EPS or Earning per Share to $20, which is hovering around $15 since last 12 months. The report says, “.. next week about 26 percent of IBM’s employees will be getting phone calls from their managers. A few hours later a package will appear on their doorsteps with all the paperwork.”
As per insiders, this new ‘restructuring’ mission to increase profits by firing employees has been code-named: Project Chrome; and both employees and customers should “expect the worst”.
On January 20th, IBM reported their Q4 revenues, and the news wasn’t encouraging. It experienced their 11th consecutive dip in quarterly revenues, a shock which very few companies can withstand. As pressure from share holders is building up on IBM to improve their performance, their CEO Ginni Rometty said shortly after announcing the Q4 results: “We are making significant progress in our transformation, continuing to shift IBM’s business to higher value, and investing and positioning ourselves for the longer term,”
26% firing of their global workforce can be interpreted as part of this “transformation”.
Globally, IBM has 4,31,212 employees (as of 2014), out of which 150,000 are in India.
If 26% news is indeed correct, then 1,12,115 employees globally including 39,000 employees from India face immediate danger of getting fired in next few months (or weeks?)
A World Record?
In 1993, IBM had fired 60,000 employees, which holds the record for largest layoffs by a single company at a particular moment. If these current reports of layoffs are correct, then IBM may break their own record in 2015.
Here is an interesting article by Cringly, a renowned technology writer and author who has done some serious research into IBM fiasco, and their current business model. The article was written in 2007, and explored the possibilities of the tech giant in coming days.
It seems that the predictions are slowly transforming into reality.
IBM Official Statement
Interestingly, IBM has denied such reports of firing 100,000+ employees but has maintained that there is a restructuring program underway, which has been allocated a budget of $600 million. As per the official statement issued at their Hong Kong office blog, “The fact is that IBM already announced, after 3Q earnings report, that the company would take a $600 million charge for restructuring. That’s several thousand people. Not 10,000, or 100,000.”
As we have experienced before, during a layoff, the exact numbers hardly matter. What matters is the hope and aspirations of those getting fired, due to mismanaged top level of the organization, and the complete chaos which follows. Of course those who have taken the decision to ‘restructure’ 26% of their global workforce wouldn’t have thought about these ‘minor’ issues ever.
We will keep you updated as more news come in. If you are an IBM employee, and have any information related with World’s largest layoff reports, please feel free to comment here or email at admin-at-trak.in.
[Image: Shutterstock.com]
