Restructuring events
European Restructuring Monitor (ERM)
The restructuring events database contains factsheets with data on large-scale restructuring events reported in the principal national media and company websites in each EU Member State. This database was created in 2002.
On 25 November 2020, the US-based global technology and consultancy company IBM announced that it would cut 10,000 jobs at its branches across Europe by mid-2021 as part of a major saving scheme. The job cuts will affect about 20% of the workforce in Europe and will occur mainly at the company’s sites located in the UK, Germany and France, but cuts are also planned in Austria, the Netherlands, Poland, Slovakia, Italy and Belgium.
The company announced the restructuring aims to ‘improve IBM’s competitiveness’ to best meet the needs of customers as well as prepare the business for a spinoff. IBM intends to split off the IT services (day-to-day infrastructure operations such as managing client data centres and traditional information-technology support for installing, operating and repairing equipment) into a separate company. In addition to the layoffs, the restructuring programme involves a focus on automation, hybrid cloud computing and AI businesses.
IBM's Chief Financial Officer said they expect the fourth-quarter charge to operating results of about USD 2.3 billion. In the third quarter of 2020, IBM recorded USD 17.6 billion in total revenue, a drop of around 2.5% year-on-year.
IBM employs over 350,000 staff worldwide, including about 50,000 in Europe.
Eurofound (2020), IBM, Internal restructuring in European Union, factsheet number 102891, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://apps.eurofound.europa.eu/restructuring-events/detail/102891.
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