IBM gearing up to cut thousands of staff

IBM has joined many leading tech firms in slashing staff levels

IBM is reported to be preparing to cut thousands of staff worldwide. Multiple reports cite company sources with estimates said to be running as high as 5,000.

Reports in The Wall Street Journal claim that IBM is also planning to move a larger portion of its operations to India. The company began offering positions in India to laid-off US staffers last month.

IBM was also said to be making job cuts in January which were estimated to run as high as 4,000 positions.

Big Blue is hardly alone in being forced to cut jobs. The economic crisis has led nearly every big name in the IT industry to lay off staff, including Oracle, AMD and Spansion.

Other companies such as Intel and HP have instituted salary cuts or freezes in an effort to prevent further redundancies.