The biggest corporate lay-off in history is expected within days: IBM believed to be scrapping 110,000 of its 430,000 workforce around the world
- Thousands of British jobs at risk as IBM prepares to cut its workforce
- More than 110,000 jobs could disappear worldwide, including 5,000 here
- IBM is being restructured in ‘desperate’ attempt to revamp its business
- Struggled in move from manufacturing computers to cloud computing
Thousands of British jobs are at risk as technology giant IBM is reported to be preparing to cut a quarter of its workforce in the biggest corporate staff cull in history.
More than 110,000 jobs could disappear worldwide in a major restructuring at the once-dominant computing goliath – nicknamed ‘Big Blue’.
Some 20,000 are employed by the company in the UK across 24 offices, including sites in Portsmouth, London, Manchester and Edinburgh.
Scroll down for video
Thousands of British jobs are at risk as technology giant IBM is reported to be preparing to cut a quarter of its workforce in the biggest corporate staff cull in history
There are fears that up to 5,000 roles could be at risk if the expected rate of redundancies is applied to Britain.
The jobs will be cut as IBM undergoes a massive restructuring in a ‘desperate’ attempt to revamp its business, according to a report on the US Forbes website.
But IBM poured cold water on the article, calling the reported scale of the job cuts ‘ridiculous’ and ‘baseless’.
The website said the company was preparing to merge its three main arms – hardware, software and support – into a single operating business. It will break down the ‘Chinese walls’ between the divisions and reorganise staff into teams based on their jobs, such as sales or research.
This is because of the growing demand from businesses to use companies such as IBM as a ‘one-stop shop’ for technology needs. It is expected to restructure its entire global workforce – some 430,000 people – under a programme known as Project Chrome.
IBM has struggled to shift from its traditional strength of making computers to offering IT services and information storage.
Last week, Ginni Rometty, chief executive since 2012 and who joined the company at 24 in 1981 as a systems engineer, reported quarterly profits below analysts' forecasts and an 11th straight quarter of falling revenues
The company set aside £400million for redundancies last week, which it described as ‘workforce rebalancing’, after three-month sales figures came in £444million lower than expected.
If it axes one in four staff, as reported, it will be the largest corporate layoff in history. The previous largest redundancy programme was also from IBM, when it cut 60,000 staff in 1993.
Robert Cringley, from Forbes, said: ‘To fix its business problems and speed up its “transformation,” next week about 26 per cent of IBM’s employees will be getting phone calls from their managers.
‘Project Chrome will hit many of the worldwide services operations. The USA will be hit hard, but so will other locations.’
An IBM spokesman said: ‘IBM does not comment on rumours, even ridiculous or baseless ones.
‘IBM has already announced the company has just taken a $600million [£400million] charge for workforce rebalancing. This equates to several thousand people, a mere fraction of what’s been reported.’
BP will freeze salaries across the company this year as a way of cutting costs in the face of the falling oil price.
All of the company’s 15,000 UK staff will see their basic pay frozen at 2014 levels. The firm said it would look at increasing them again in 2016.
Most watched News videos
- Shocking moment woman is abducted by man in Oregon
- All the moments King's Guard horses haven't kept their composure
- Wills' rockstar reception! Prince of Wales greeted with huge cheers
- Moment escaped Household Cavalry horses rampage through London
- Terrorism suspect admits murder motivated by Gaza conflict
- Russia: Nuclear weapons in Poland would become targets in wider war
- Sweet moment Wills meets baby Harry during visit to skills centre
- Shocking moment pandas attack zookeeper in front of onlookers
- Shadow Transport Secretary: Labour 'can't promise' lower train fares
- Prison Break fail! Moment prisoners escape prison and are arrested
- Ammanford school 'stabbing': Police and ambulance on scene
- New AI-based Putin biopic shows the president soiling his nappy