IBM cuts 160 jobs at research unit

NEW YORK: International Business Machines Corp.'s research unit has laid off
about 160 people on what appears to be the largest reduction in the division
since the mid-1990s, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.

IBM officials were not immediately for comment.

On its online edition, the Journal said the new layoffs affect only US
researchers, including those in Almaden, Calif. and Yorktown Heights, NY.

Timothy Blair, director of public relations for IBM Research, told the
Journal that the company still has more than 3,000 researchers worldwide, up
about 40 per cent from the level in the mid-1990s.

Earlier this month, the world's largest computer maker said it was cutting
1,500 jobs at its microlectronics unit, or about 7.5 per cent of the division's
work force, as it reshaped its chipmaking operations amid a slump in the
semiconductor industry.

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