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Story URL: http://management.silicon.com/itpro/0,39024675,39130317,00.htm

IBM and Marconi culls spark downturn worries
You thought it was all too good to last?

By Will Sturgeon

Published: Wednesday 11 May 2005

Recent layoffs at IBM and Marconi have sparked fears that talk of a recovery within IT is well wide of the mark.

A poll of silcon.com readers revealed a fairly close split but the majority of respondents (53.3 per cent) said the layoffs are a sign the much-publicised recovery is something of a false dawn.

The remaining 46.7 per cent appear confident the culls of around 13,000 jobs at IBM and 800 at Marconi are a blip rather than a sign of worse to come.

IBM has said its layoffs will consist of compulsory and voluntary redundancies, and are expected to hit the UK and mainland Europe particularly hard.

Marconi was forced to make cuts after missing out on lucrative BT contracts.