Gossip was flying on Wall Street last week that IBM was about to initiate another move to reduce its US headcount by selling some people. Soundview Financial – the former Gartner Securities, and Merrill Lynch were both saying that IBM is about to sell the maintenance, and possibly the sales operation of its Rolm Corp and that Siemens AG was the likely buyer. IBM and Siemens declined to make any comment. Some analysis also implies that IBM would phase out the Rolm PABXs, but that seems unlikely, at least in Europe, where IBM needs the new 8751 digital exchange to hold on to the market share it won with its old analogue 3750 and 1750. The 8751 is late, and there has been talk in the US that IBM would kill the exchange; IBM says it will announce delivery dates for the 8751 later this month.
