IBM To Cut More Than 110,000 Jobs - Report

IBM (NYSE: IBM - news) is reportedly planning its largest corporate layoff ever - cutting 111,800 of its staff.

A report by a respected Silicon Valley journalist for Forbes says around 26% of the company's 430,000-strong workforce will be cut this week.

The previous largest corporate redundancy was also carried out by IBM, when it cut 60,000 staff in 1993.

The company's reorganisation is codenamed Project Chrome, and most of the staff being laid off are in the US.

It will pave the way for IBM to focus on cloud computing, it is claimed, rather than its traditional hardware business.

Reporter Robert X Cringely wrote: "To fix its business problems and speed up its 'transformation', next week about 26% of IBM's employees will be getting phone calls from their managers.

"A few hours later a package will appear on their doorsteps with all the paperwork."

However, some technology commentators have said they are sceptical about the size of the reported cuts.

Sky News has contacted IBM for comment.

IBM was founded in 1911 and adopted the name International Business Machines in 1924.

It currently creates hardware and software, and provides infrastructure, hosting and consulting services.

It has revenue of around $90bn (£60bn) and is one of the most profitable companies in the US.