A lot of misinformation from ACs
Ok,
Lets clear up some things....
IBM claims that the US is no longer their main source of revenue. Ok, so one has to wonder how IBM recognizes revenue from an outsourced off shore account? Meaning if Company X outsources to IBM which offshores the work to India, how does IBM USA and IBM India record the revenue recognition?
To the point about US Tax code. That is blatantly incorrect. IBM is a US corporation and revenues earned overseas tracks back to IBM. The IRS has done a couple of things... one a tax amnesty for companies that under reported their overseas revenues and a crack down on US corporations which move their corporations offshore in an effort to dodge US taxes. Now IBM didn't do the latter, but under amnesty I believe the reported 8 Billion (USD) in unrecognized/under recognized revenue that year... (I'm going from memory so I could be wrong...)
The reason IBM is cutting US jobs is that they are moving the work offshore to lower wage countries. Over the past couple of years, IBM SWG moved their back room functions for North America to Brazil. While John Q Public doesn't notice any difference, just ask a sales rep about the additional headaches in trying to get a contract done at the last minute. With respect to GTS, these jobs are lost because the work has moved to offshore locations. IBM is doing this because while overall gross revenues are shrinking, the off shore margins are better. This is why IBM could record a record year and still RIF US workers.
While IBM is setting up Outsourcing centers in IA and MI, rumor has it that they will again be staffed with lower cost workers. (H1B, L1, etc ...)
You can bet that IBM is taking a gamble on their long term future by doing this. Outsourcing contracts contain QoS terms and even with weasle wording their contracts, you can bet that smart clients who find themselves offshored will sue or threaten to sue to renegotiate their T's and C's. When your only value add is price, you can bet you get caught up in a slow death spiral.
Net new business will be at a lower price as well, since customers know that the work is being off shored to lower cost centers so they will squeeze IBM on margins.
This cut has nothing to do with the possible acquisition of Sun.
After this stunt, I'd love to see IBM along with Microsoft lobby Capitol Hill for an increase in H1B visas. Sorry but there are plenty of displaced IT workers who've been riff'd because of too many companies gaming the system.
Thumbs down because its bad corporate IT governance.
And I'm posting under my well known alias. I'm not afraid to call IBM out for their blatant acts of stupidity.