IBM Deutschland GmbH finally got around to revealing the full awfulness of its 1993 performance yesterday but sweetened the pill by revealing that the first quarter of the new fiscal had gone well. IBM Deutschland reported a net loss for 1993 equivalent to $346m at the current rate of exchange, up from a loss in 1992 of $263m on the same conversion. It looks to return to profit this year, on sales up 5% on the $7,500m of last year. Sales and order inflow in the first quarter were reported to be satisfactory, but the company cautioned that the recession in Germany started and would thus end later than in other countries. It would not say if the German subsidiary had posted a first quarter profit. We are not unsatisfied in Germany, but we clearly have to catch up to the developments in the group, it said, adding that 6,000 jobs will be eliminated in 1994 and 1995, with about two-thirds of those cuts coming in the current year. IBM Deutschland had an average of 26,943 staff in 1993.
