Cost-Cutting and Book-Cooking at IBM
Hours ago:
IBM and Kyndryl crashed yesterday and some people attribute this to "cooking the books as happened at IBM's twin Kyndryl, and getting away with it."
To quote a new comment: "IBM Stock has lost 10-15 % of its value in the past few days. Ouch! Shareholders cannot be happy campers right now."
"IBM share price ended the day at $259.50," somebody wrote a few hours ago. "It got punished for its false claim about AI. Other tech companies got punished to a lesser level about their inflated claims concerning AI. Now, that the IBM AI claim is busted, what else can the id1ot Indian at the top claim to be IBM advantage ? ZERO ...."
"They spent 10–20 years under IBM, learned every trick in the book," said another, "absorbed the culture, the systems, the playbook. And now we’re supposed to believe that in a single year they tossed all that aside and suddenly went rogue? Please. If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck…"
"Arvin's talking about increase in GDP is gaslighting," somebody explained. "They set automatic percentages at the beginning of 2025 which is 1% for high, 2% for core and 0% for low. It ended up being 15% high, 70% core and 15% low were the skews that managers had to adhere to. GDP budget for a manager is based upon a percentage of salary. Setting the low percentages combined with the skews means the total payout has to be lower not higher. Arvind will do anything to get to those free cash flow that he wants and believes will make IBM a growth company."
"Lower performers will get 0% for GDP," noted another. "Managers were made aware of the fixed percentages for GDP in early 2025. 0% low, 1% core and 2% high. Low performers should be prepared for a PIP as the next step."
They argue that IBM - like Microsoft - misuses PIPs as follows: "a PIP is just an RA with a lower severance fixed at 1 month and lesser of any of the benefits an RA comes with. HR established in 2025 that low performers have to be exited via a PIP and RAs can only be core and high performers."
The more interesting new threads concern this report about anomalies in IBM's "books". "Court found 'skip pending separation' notations proved systematic unfair treatment..."
On misuse of the label "low performers":
Amid mass layoff IBM is trying to make up some narrative about hiring. "The company's chief human resources officer, Nickle LaMoreaux," it says, "explained that the roles being filled are for jobs that some believe artificial intelligence can perform."
Sounds like the usual nonsense about slop a hard sell to people from IBM:
It's like cutting salaries by more than 50%. █