New York, September 20:  International Business Machines also known as 'Big Blue' has reportedly started laying off employees quietly from the IBM Cloud division. The silent IBM layoffs have affected a substantial number of people this week, according to a report. Nearly thousands of people have been affected by the job cuts, and an IBM spokesperson explained the reason for announcing the layoffs and a percentage of how many people were affected.

According to a report published by The Register, the IBM Cloud division experienced mass layoffs in the past few days, cutting nearly 1,000 jobs. A source said that, unlike the traditional round of IBM layoffs, the tech company reduced its workforce secretly. The managers even made the employees sign an NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement) to not disclose any specifics about the layoffs. When asked, an IBM spokesperson said that a very low percentage of people were affected. Qualcomm Layoffs: Chip Giant To Lay Off 226 Employees in US Later This Year as Part of Business Diversification Strategy, Starting in November.

The spokesperson said that IBM introduced a charge to rebalance workforce earlier this year that showed a very low "single-digit percentage" of the company's global workforce. The spokesperson said the company would expect to exit 2024 with nearly the same workforce as it had at the beginning of the year.

In the first-quarter earnings report, IBM disclosed a USD 400 million "workforce rebalancing" charge that represented the low percentage of employees to be affected by the planned layoffs. IBM CEO Arvind Krishna said the company expected to replace around 7,800 jobs and adopt artificial intelligence (AI). Aakash Layoffs: BYJU’s-Owned Edtech Firm Lays Off Around 100 Employees Amid Strategic Shift, Plans To Create New Roles, Hire New Talent.

However, the company did not disclose when they would take such action. So far, IBM stock prices have gone up to 33%, and the share price is USD 215 per share. Based on the previous rounds of IBM layoffs, the experts predicted that the job cuts would likely be higher than the spokesperson said in a public statement. 

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Sep 20, 2024 04:59 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).