The Register: IBM lays off 15,000, HP 1300
“Veteran IBM-watchers know how testing it is to read one of the
company’s financial statements. In the early days of the cold war,
Churchill described the Soviet Union as ‘a riddle wrapped in a
mystery inside an enigma.’ But compared to earnings releases from
companies such as Apple and Sun–who provide terse and lucid
declarations–you can be forgiven for thinking of IBM’s
announcements as a cloud wrapped in a fog containing a temporary
heat-haze.“However, this much is clear: IBM has shed 15,000 jobs in the
past quarter: 1400 from the microelectronics division and a
staggering ‘14,213 Global Services personnel’ in response to ‘the
recent decline in corporate spending on technology-related
services.’ To balance the books, IBM also bunged its recent
acquisition, PwC, by almost $400 million…”
The Salt Lake Tribune: Novell Lays Off Hundreds
“Computer networking giant Novell on Thursday said it laid off
600 people worldwide in its unprofitable third quarter as part of a
plan to cut $100 million in costs annually.“For the quarter that ended July 31, Novell reported revenue of
$282.8 million, about the same as in the same quarter in 2002. Its
net loss totaled $12.4 million, or 3 cents per share, compared with
net income of $10 million, or 3 cents per share, for the third
fiscal quarter 2002…”