IBM: The "I" Stands for "India" [UPDATED]

When IBM CEO Sam Palmisano advised the Obama transition team that the $30 billion in information-technology stimulus handouts Big Blue is angling for could create more than 900,000 new jobs, he didn’t say they’d be created in India. Yet, apparently that’s the case. IBM (IBM) is reportedly planning to sack “a large number” of employees in its Global Business Services division, shifting their duties overseas to workers in India. The breadth of the reduction isn’t yet known, but chatter on the Alliance@IBM boards suggests it could be brutal. Said one commenter, “I talked to two different Band 10s in IBM Global Business Services yesterday who have both said that tomorrow will be a big day for firing in almost all of the GBS business units. Both of them are expecting that they will be cut because the percentages are going to be higher at the higher levels. Both made reference to this could be called a black Thursday.”

UPDATE: Black Thursday, indeed. Sources close to IBM tell Reuters the company plans to eliminate 5,000 jobs.