Wed 18 Jul 2007
I’ve been pretty slack over the past year with rumors, mostly because I’m not sure how to confirm them. I dislike whisper mills so I’ve shied away from them unless I feel pretty good about what I’ve heard. But this is, after all, a blog, so I feel like I can take some liberties. On that note, I’ve heard a couple things that I don’t have the contacts to confirm so I figured I’d just throw them out there.
1) Sometime next week (the 24th) there will be another round of corporate wide layoffs for big blue. This is fairly commonplace… so much so that it may not really be big news from a corporate perspective, except that I’ve heard that in New York, IBM has arranged extra security to escort those dismissed from the premises. It is my understanding that that level of ‘protection’ wasn’t taken for any of the other recent layoffs.
2) IBM Research chief Paul Horn retired today after 28 years at IBM (11 as head of research) I was tipped that he was pushed out and it wasn’t amicable. I don’t know why or anything, but I thought other might clarify things in the comments.
Tags:No Tags
July 18th, 2007 at 10:03 pm
I’d think Paul left for Research having lost its way some. Too much commercial incentive for working with brands, that they did too much product development and too little true innovation. I hope they fix this.
And the layoffs…try thinking of them in percentage terms. Pretty small.
July 19th, 2007 at 5:10 am
I hope that’s why. The perspective someone privately emailed me with was that they thought he wasn’t hitting his numbers. I hope you’re right… missing revenue targets is the opposite of not truely innovating.
I agree that the layoffs so far are pretty small in % terms. The fear though is that annualized, the North American workforce reduction would be ~ 30%.
July 19th, 2007 at 2:33 pm
Percentage-wise, yes, it will be a small layoff. But that percentage is irrelevant if you are one of the unlucky few.
The Post has a good article on IBM’s quarterly earnings report: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/18/AR2007071801888.html?hpid%3Dsec-tech&sub=AR.
The caption of the photograph telegraphs Sam’s punch; he’s seen speaking at IBM India, where the company is investing $6 billion to expand its operations there.
This is nothing short of relocating jobs from the USA to India. I’m curious to see how this is handled for the public sector, where security clearances, and therefore US citizenship, are required.
July 19th, 2007 at 4:00 pm
I think rumors are why weblogs are worthwhile. FWIW I don’t think the upcoming layoffs are any different than what there has been. When it hits your site it seems ‘huge’ but in the grand scheme of things it isn’t much.
November 26th, 2007 at 6:30 pm
Reicieved the following today… thought I’d pass it along. Seems like more of the same, though the timing does stink:
Did you know Division 16 layed off (30 day notice) 1,300 people today? Even a DE was in the mix. No real reason that your job family was eliminated. Go find billable or work or you’re fired. Good luck find work this time of year.
December 9th, 2007 at 6:48 pm
I had heard rumors that Paul was going to find a way to use his vast knowledge and resources to take on a wonderful humanitarian cause. I hope the rumor it true. He could bring about a real change.