by Jena McGregor
Last Thursday, a technology blogger for Forbes magazine reported that IBM was planning to cut 26 percent of its total workforce — or some 112,000 jobs — in a “bloodbath” of layoffs that would begin this week. Headlines buzzed that this would amount to the biggest corporate layoff in history, and the stock appeared to rise on the news.
By Monday, however, IBM had sharply dismissed the report, calling the rumor “ridiculous” and “baseless,” putting the number at more like “several thousand people,” and noting it has 15,000 job openings, too. “If anyone had checked information readily available from our public earnings statements, or had simply asked us, they would know that IBM has already announced the company has just taken a $600 million charge for workforce rebalancing,” the company said in an emailed statement.
