IBM Global Services Won't Confirm Reported Layoffs

IBM

"We routinely do skills rebalancing in our services business," said an IBM spokesman. "We bring in new skills where we need to, and if there are skills we no longer need, we tell those people to look for another job [within IBM."

"This is not something out of the ordinary," he said.

The spokesman would not say how many people were affected by the services organization's move. But he pointed out that IBM also regularly adds de facto staffers through its outsourcing contracts.

Earlier this week, for example, 400 employees of Manulife, a large Canadian financial services company, joined IBM Global Services in the first phase of what IBM believes could be a decade-long contract worth $563 million, he said.

Under the terms of the deal, IBM will manage Manulife's North American IT infrastructure, from PC support to data center management.

The IBM spokesman said current head count at IBM Global Services is about 150,000, roughly the same as the count this time last year. He would not speculate on whether additional cuts were in the offing in the next quarter or two.

Revenue from IBM Global Services, which accounts for about 40 percent of IBM's overall sales, was $35 billion in 2001.