Unhappily for IBM, few things depress its share price more these days than its no layoffs policy, and on Wednesday, the company’s shares crept back over the $100 mark, closing at $100.125, up 62.5 cents, on rumours that it planned to ditch the policy and fire from 10,000 to 15,000 employees, breaking a 40yearold rule: ominously for those in the firing line, IBM said only that at this point, that is completely rumour, which is about as weak a denial as IBM can make; IBM may feel that it has to make compulsory redundancies this time to avoid the problems caused by its series of voluntary early retirement programmes, where the goget-ters tended to take IBM’s money and look for another job or start their own business, while the dead wood sat tight, weakening the company.
