Big Blue confirms it's commencing workforce cuts in order to "meet the changing requirements of its clients." The company says it's now focusing on the cloud, analytics, and cognitive computing. February 27, 2014 3:45 PM PST IBM chief Ginni Rometty addresses attendees at Mobile World Congress 2014 in Barcelona. (Credit: IBM) IBM has confirmed that it's laying off a portion of its workforce in order to focus on new priority areas, like the cloud, analytics, and cognitive computing. This means certain divisions of the company must see cuts. "As reported in our recent earnings briefing, IBM continues to rebalance its workforce to meet the changing requirements of its clients, and to pioneer new, high value segments of the IT industry," IBM spokesman Doug Shelton told CNET in a statement. "To that end, IBM is positioning itself to lead in areas such as Cloud, Analytics and Cognitive Computing and investing in these priority areas." The company wouldn't comment on the amount of people being layed off or what divisions would be most affected. However, one source familiar with the plans told CNET that the layoffs entailed up to 25 percent in the Systems and Technology group -- this is the group that makes IBM servers and is often referred to as the "hardware" division. Related stories IBM to take Watson mobile with developer challenge Death of the PC, Sony style Twitter buys 900 patents from IBM to end infringement spat IBM's graphene-based circuitry could boost wireless communications IBM sells its x86 server business to Lenovo for $2.3 billion IBM currently employs more than 400,000 people worldwide and says that its total workforce has remained stable over the past three years. Additionally, the company is investing in cutting edge projects, like Watson -- which was first developed by IBM researchers to show what was possible in combining cognitive computing and natural language processing. "Already this year we have committed $1 billion to our new Watson unit and $1.2 billion to expand our Cloud footprint around the world," Shelton said. "In addition, just this week IBM announced a $1 billion investment in platform-as-a-service Cloud capabilities, as well as investments in areas such as nanotechnology which will bring hundreds of new jobs to New York State. This also creates new job opportunities at IBM. At any given time, IBM has more than 3,000 job openings in these and other growth areas in the US."
Big Blue confirms it's commencing workforce cuts in order to "meet the changing requirements of its clients." The company says it's now focusing on the cloud, analytics, and cognitive computing.
IBM chief Ginni Rometty addresses attendees at Mobile World Congress 2014 in Barcelona.
(Credit: IBM)
IBM has confirmed that it's laying off a portion of its workforce in order to focus on new priority areas, like the cloud, analytics, and cognitive computing. This means certain divisions of the company must see cuts.
"As reported in our recent earnings briefing, IBM continues to rebalance its workforce to meet the changing requirements of its clients, and to pioneer new, high value segments of the IT industry," IBM spokesman Doug Shelton told CNET in a statement. "To that end, IBM is positioning itself to lead in areas such as Cloud, Analytics and Cognitive Computing and investing in these priority areas."
The company wouldn't comment on the amount of people being layed off or what divisions would be most affected. However, one source familiar with the plans told CNET that the layoffs entailed up to 25 percent in the Systems and Technology group -- this is the group that makes IBM servers and is often referred to as the "hardware" division.
Related stories
- IBM to take Watson mobile with developer challenge
- Death of the PC, Sony style
- Twitter buys 900 patents from IBM to end infringement spat
- IBM's graphene-based circuitry could boost wireless communications
- IBM sells its x86 server business to Lenovo for $2.3 billion
IBM currently employs more than 400,000 people worldwide and says that its total workforce has remained stable over the past three years. Additionally, the company is investing in cutting edge projects, like Watson -- which was first developed by IBM researchers to show what was possible in combining cognitive computing and natural language processing.
"Already this year we have committed $1 billion to our new Watson unit and $1.2 billion to expand our Cloud footprint around the world," Shelton said. "In addition, just this week IBM announced a $1 billion investment in platform-as-a-service Cloud capabilities, as well as investments in areas such as nanotechnology which will bring hundreds of new jobs to New York State. This also creates new job opportunities at IBM. At any given time, IBM has more than 3,000 job openings in these and other growth areas in the US."
