IBM dismisses Forbes report of massive layoffs

(Reuters) - IBM dismissed on Monday a Forbes magazine report claiming the technology firm is preparing to cut about 26 percent of its workforce. IBM is in the process of layoffs, as disclosed in its latest earnings report last week, but they will affect "several thousand" employees only, according to an emailed statement from IBM to Reuters. A report last Thursday on Forbes' website by pseudonymous Silicon Valley technology gossip columnist Robert Cringely said IBM planned to lay off 26 percent of its global workforce, or as many as 112,000 employees. IBM did not issue a categorical denial of the report, but strongly suggested it was inaccurate. "IBM does not comment on rumors, even ridiculous or baseless ones," the company said in the email. "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. This equates to several thousand people, a small fraction of what's been reported." Last week, Chief Financial Officer Martin Schroeter told investors on IBM's fourth-quarter earnings conference call that the company was taking restructuring charges of around $580 million, but he did not specify the number of jobs affected. “We are not going to replicate the same level of restructuring that we had last year," Schroeter said in response to a Wall Street analyst's question. "It will be a lower amount." IBM's shares were up about 0.8 percent at $157.28 on the New York Stock Exchange after paring earlier gains. (Reporting by Bill Rigby and Eric Auchard; Editing by Bernadette Baum and Meredith Mazzilli)