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It's amazing how if someone said blatantly false things over and over again about Google or Yahoo laying off employees then it would get flagged out of existenc

It's amazing how if someone said blatantly false things over and over again about Google or Yahoo laying off employees then it would get flagged out of existence, yet somehow Cringely makes the same false "prediction" over and over again about IBM and people vote it right up. Check your source people, you are actively spreading disinformation by a known doomsday prophet, and like most doomsday prophets he has been wrong every time.

jsprogrammer 12y ago
Does IBM never do large firings?
- bigiain 12y ago
  The article almost opens with a line about the previous biggest ever layoff in history of 60,000 people. In 1993. By IBM...
  - jsprogrammer 12y ago
    Link has clickbait all over it. Hasn't hooked me yet. But more seriously, have there been any other large, but not "biggest ever" firings since 1993? Anyone have a chart?
    - bigiain 12y ago
      I dunno - 60,000 people? I can't think of anything of that magnitude (not that I keep on top of that kind of stuff...)
  - bigiain 12y ago
    Clarification... The original link went to http://www.itworld.com/article/2875112/ibm-is-about-to-get-hit-with-a-massive-reorg-and-layoffs.html http://www.itworld.com/article/2875112/ibm-is-about-to-get-h... - it got changed (for good reasons) to the origoinal Cringely page (which _doesn't_ have the comparison to IBM's 1993 layoffs)
- TD-Linux 12y ago
  In Rochester, MN, IBM has been doing several very large rounds of layoffs over the past 5 years. Nearly half the building is empty now and being rented to other companies.
  - dingaling 12y ago
    Rochester was the AS/400 facility wasn't it? Or iSeries in latter years.
teej 12y ago
If other HNers Are anything like me, they perceive IBM as this massive, outdated company that's behind the times and only useful for supporting COBOL systems. This is obviously not true, but that's the perception. This makes people quick to upvote "news" that confirms the bias.
- eitally 12y ago
  I think the problem is that IBM has transitioned itself largely into a services company computing with the likes of TCS, Wipro, Infosys and Cap Gemini, and for people like us, those companies add zero value in the tech space. Unfortunately, whatever they're doing with Z/OS and the Z13 platform, Watson, and who knows what else is so marginalized that no one really cares.
  - deleted 12y ago
    [deleted]
  - username10975 12y ago
    Services company maybe - but along the likes of TCS, Wipro, Infosys? Come on. IBM's heavily into research - and has its fingers dipped into a lot of exciting areas. "A boy and his atom" come to mind. That they're not customer facing is the issue.
JoachimS 12y ago
Unfortunately not very uncommon. I'm amazed how much trust people seem to give to business intelligence companies like IDC. A good example is their predictions on mobile phone OS market share. According to them, windows mobile is poised to take the no2 spot from iOS in just two years. The problem is that they move those two years forward every six months when their latest report on actual market share and updated predictions are published.
enraged_camel 12y ago
Even a broken clock is right twice a day. People are hoping that to be the case here, since IBM is largely perceived by HN to be a hopelessly outdated enterprise behemoth.
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]

jsprogrammer 12y ago

Does IBM never do large firings?

bigiain 12y ago
The article almost opens with a line about the previous biggest ever layoff in history of 60,000 people. In 1993. By IBM...
- jsprogrammer 12y ago
  Link has clickbait all over it. Hasn't hooked me yet. But more seriously, have there been any other large, but not "biggest ever" firings since 1993? Anyone have a chart?
  - bigiain 12y ago
    I dunno - 60,000 people? I can't think of anything of that magnitude (not that I keep on top of that kind of stuff...)
- bigiain 12y ago
  Clarification... The original link went to http://www.itworld.com/article/2875112/ibm-is-about-to-get-hit-with-a-massive-reorg-and-layoffs.html http://www.itworld.com/article/2875112/ibm-is-about-to-get-h... - it got changed (for good reasons) to the origoinal Cringely page (which _doesn't_ have the comparison to IBM's 1993 layoffs)
TD-Linux 12y ago
In Rochester, MN, IBM has been doing several very large rounds of layoffs over the past 5 years. Nearly half the building is empty now and being rented to other companies.
- dingaling 12y ago
  Rochester was the AS/400 facility wasn't it? Or iSeries in latter years.

teej 12y ago

If other HNers Are anything like me, they perceive IBM as this massive, outdated company that's behind the times and only useful for supporting COBOL systems. This is obviously not true, but that's the perception. This makes people quick to upvote "news" that confirms the bias.

eitally 12y ago
I think the problem is that IBM has transitioned itself largely into a services company computing with the likes of TCS, Wipro, Infosys and Cap Gemini, and for people like us, those companies add zero value in the tech space. Unfortunately, whatever they're doing with Z/OS and the Z13 platform, Watson, and who knows what else is so marginalized that no one really cares.
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
- username10975 12y ago
  Services company maybe - but along the likes of TCS, Wipro, Infosys? Come on. IBM's heavily into research - and has its fingers dipped into a lot of exciting areas. "A boy and his atom" come to mind. That they're not customer facing is the issue.

JoachimS 12y ago

Unfortunately not very uncommon. I'm amazed how much trust people seem to give to business intelligence companies like IDC. A good example is their predictions on mobile phone OS market share. According to them, windows mobile is poised to take the no2 spot from iOS in just two years. The problem is that they move those two years forward every six months when their latest report on actual market share and updated predictions are published.

enraged_camel 12y ago

Even a broken clock is right twice a day. People are hoping that to be the case here, since IBM is largely perceived by HN to be a hopelessly outdated enterprise behemoth.

deleted 12y ago

[deleted]