IBM Laying Off "Large Number" of US Employees, Outsourcing to India Instead

Citing an internal document, The Wall Street Journal reports IBM, who was recently ranked No. 3 on the "Corporate Citizens" list, plans to issue its largest number of layoffs in terms of revenue and employment, with 180,000 employees worldwide. Of them, IBM will cut a "large number" of US employees in its business service unit and look to India to fill the void, the Journal states. According to "people familiar with the situation," the number of US jobs being cut isn't known, as IBM typically remains tight-lipped when it comes to layoffs. However, earlier this year IBM had sent notices of layoffs to roughly 4,600 US employees in its software, sales, semiconductor, and finance groups. While this might be the largest shift in IBM's history, the company has also been linked to acquisition talks with Sun Microsystems. According to a New York Times article last week, IBM is considering spending nearly $7 billion to merge with Sun. Layoffs and job shifts would ... (link)