IBM sheds nearly 400 UK jobs as profit slashed
IBM shed almost 400 jobs in the UK in 2024, it has been revealed, as its profit was slashed by nearly a quarter.
The UK arm of the US giant saw its headcount reduce in the 12 months from 7,309 to 6,920, new accounts filed with Companies House show.
The fall in headcount in 2024 comes after the average number of people employed by the firm stood at 7,660 in 2022.
The results have also revealed that IBM’s pre-tax profit declined from £172.9m to £130.4m over the same period.
The fall comes after the company’s profit jumped by more than £100m in 2023 thanks to a rise in demand for its AI and hybrid cloud services.
The Portsmouth-headquartered division’s revenue dipped in 2024 from £3.06bn to £3.04bn.
After having issued a dividend to its US parent of £198m in 2023, a pay out was not recommended for 2024.
IBM bosses pleased with division’s year
In a statement signed off by the board, IBM said: “Revenue from the core business units increased by 1.6 per cent.
“Export revenues, which are derived from sales of services to companies in the IBM group overseas, decreased by 12.8 percentage points compared to 2023 primarily due to a change in the organisation of IBM group research and development activities.”
It added that its fall in pre-tax profit was affected by “positive movement in interest income of £9.5m.
The division also said its closing net asset position rose from £1.75bn to £1.98bn – an increase mainly driven by the issue of a preference share to acquire Super iPaaS Integration UK Limited, the generated profit for the year and the rose in the net retirement benefit asset.
IBM added: “The directors are pleased with the performance of the company given the challenging economic environment.
“In 2024, IBM UK… made significant progress in its journey to become amore innovative and focused company, built around the two most transformative technologies of our time; hybrid cloud and AI.”