Word: ibm
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1990-1999
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...time when other computer companies, including Sun Microsystems and Compaq, have been reporting hefty profit increases and rolling out innovative products, IBM last week was announcing its most traumatic cutbacks to date. In the fifth major restructuring in the past seven years, it plans to shed more unprofitable and ill-fitting assets and slash its work force next year more than 8%, or an additional 25,000 employees. Only a year ago, IBM reorganized its operations into 13 semiautonomous units, called "Baby Blues." The latest round of cuts will include the first layoffs in the company's history and will...
...IBM also announced that it would pare its spending on research and development $1 billion, or 17%, a move that prompted President-elect Bill Clinton to comment while leading a two-day economic conference in Little Rock. Though he conceded that IBM's cuts reflect the irresistible pressures facing U.S. manufacturers, he expressed concern about IBM's decision to slash investment in research and development. That kind of expenditure, said Clinton, is "the exact thing we don't want them to be cutting...
...news echoed loudest on Wall Street, where IBM stock has been transformed from a darling into an ugly duckling in recent years. IBM shares went into a free fall after chief executive John Akers warned that the company may have to cut its rich yearly dividend of $4.84 a share as a result of the restructuring. "The reality of the environment we find ourselves in makes us less sure we'll be able to maintain that dividend," he said. "We must be frank with ourselves and honest with our constituents, including our shareholders." The company's stock plummeted 11 points...
Although the company, based in Armonk, New York, has already taken several drastic steps to snap out of its prolonged slump, many industry analysts remain unconvinced of IBM's ability to re-emerge as a major force in the industry. The moves so far, they say, are little more than Band-Aid solutions that cover up deep financial and technological wounds. IBM's challenge is not just to shrink in size but also to remake itself completely into a nimbler and more market-oriented player, in much the same way that American Telephone & Telegraph reshaped itself after the breakup...
...IBM's corporate culture has been drastically altered by the radical changes under way. After years of enjoying the comfort of lifetime employment, IBM workers now labor under the threat of dismissal and the pressure of pay-for- performance. For many IBMers, the company's announcement last week that it may abandon its no-layoffs policy merely formalized what Big Blue has already been doing. Although IBM largely relied on attrition and early-retirement programs to reduce its labor force by 100,000 from a peak of 406,300 workers in 1985, the company began de facto layoffs last year...