RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK – On the back of a pandemic decline and lagging stock price, IBM’s new chief executive Arvind Krishna seems committed to doing whatever it takes to push the tech giant further in the black, even if it means more job cuts.

“This is a unique and challenging time for our clients,”  Krishna said in a conference call on Monday after IBM released its latest earnings. “To continue to be the most proficient partner, we have been spending a lot of time and energy to drastically simplify our team to go to market.

“We are doing a lot of work on the back end to bring a portfolio together in a more cohesive fashion,” he added, “so our teams can come up with simpler and more relevant proposals.”

In May, Big Blue confirmed that it was making layoffs “in the long-term interests” of the business.

It didn’t disclose the scale of the cuts.

Talk about IBM jobs is big news in North Carolina where Big Blue employs thousands, owns Raleigh-based Red Hat, and operates one of its largest corporate campuses in RTP.

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A person familiar with the company’s plans told the Wall Street Journal that they are thought to affect “several thousand people.” IBM employs thousands of people across North Carolina, with its largest corporate campuses based in RTP.

On Monday, Krishna didn’t say if more cuts are planned. However, he didn’t seem to rule out anything, either.

That was hours after the tech giant released its second quarterly earnings, and it was a bit of a mixed bag. IBM reported adjusted earnings to $2.18 per share, a 31 percent drop. Still, it was better than analysts had expected at around $2.07 per share, according to Refinitiv.

Revenue, meanwhile, declined 5 percent to $18.12 billion, versus $17.72 billion as expected.

IBM earnings drop 31% in Q2 but beat Street expectations

Krishna reiterated that IBM is still focused on changing its culture and operating model. “Moving forward, we will continue to take actions that improve our operating model and accelerate our strategic priorities, so that we can emerge from it.”

Added James Kavanaugh, IBM senior vice president and chief financial officer: “We’re also working to fundamentally shift our operating model. We’re simplifying the geographic dimension of our go-to market by consolidating our operations and moving to a streamlined structure for sales teams to be more flexible and responsive to our clients.”

IBM cuts ‘thousands’ of jobs across the US, NC included