Poor old John Akers is learning the hard way the truth of a couple of old Chinese saws – the one about he who rides the tiger finds it difficult to get off, and Chairman Mao’s doctrine of permanent revolution: once a company starts restructuring, the process tends to become self-perpetuating, and the last round of cuts changes the landscape to the point where further cuts have to be made to hold the ring; SoundView Financial Inc analyst Steve Cohen expects IBM Corp to announce a new round of voluntary redundancies that would reduce its US workforce by between 6% and 10%.
