Cloud Computing casts pall over Top IT Tech Companies - Poised For Massive Layoffs

EMC, VMware, IBM, etc.: Here Come 333,000 Layoffs in Tech, Opines Global Equities - Tech Trader Daily - Barrons.com
Boutique research house Global Equities Research’s Trip Chowdhry today opines that layoffs in the mainstream of tech companies are primed to become much worse than expected: He predicts there will be at least 333,000 layoffs in the next twelve months, in part because of developments such as cloud computing.

Chowdhry takes as his cue an article this morning by Barb Darrow over at Fortune, which claims VMware (VMW) is going to lay off 900 people, or 5% of its workforce, as part of its buyout by Dell along with VMware majority holder EMC (EMC). Darrow cites multiple unnamed sources regarding the layoffs.
That’s nothing, says Chowdhry, asserting “the above news item is very likely accurate … but over the 2016, we could see more layoffs.”
Chowdhry’s philosophical justification for such a dour view is in large part that the shift to cloud computing eliminates a lot of IT talent that has been classically devoted to “back-end” operations of IT.

10 Top Tech Companies Poised For Massive Layoffs - InformationWeek

Tech workers across the nation may witness a massive pink slip parade this year, should one Wall Street analyst's prediction of more than 260,000 tech layoffs in 2016 come true. Here's at a look at the top 10 companies on his list and why they are there.  

1. VMware
• Estimated percentage of jobs to be cut this year: 10% to 15%
• Estimated number of cut employees: 1,700 to 2,500
• VMware is a victim of the technology shift to the cloud, as its virtualization customers looked to companies like Amazon and Microsoft for their micro-service of cloud computing. In addition, noted Chowdhry, VMware also faced the problem of needing a lot of employees to manage the backend process. But as its customers shifted to the cloud, the migration from technology integration to domain-specific expertise reduced the need for large numbers of these types of workers
2. Symantec
• Estimated percentage of jobs to be cut this year: 15%
• Estimated number of cut employees: 2,800
• When Symantec announced its third-quarter results in February, it posted a 6% drop in revenue, to $909 million, and a hefty 23% plunge in net income, to $170 million. As a result, it's no surprise the security software behemoth needs to cut costs, which could mean potential layoffs.
3. Yahoo
• Estimated percentage of jobs to be cut this year: 30%
• Estimated number of cut employees: 3,500
• Embattled Yahoo also got a jump on the New Year layoffs, announcing in February that it would slice 15% of its workforce, or approximately 1,700 jobs.
4. EMC
• Estimated percentage of jobs to be cut this year: 15% to 20%
• Estimated number of cut employees: 10,000 to 14,000
• Data storage hardware giant EMC is struggling as its customers are making a technology shift from buying its storage equipment to using cloud services like Amazon Web Services and Microsoft's Azure. It's all part of its customers' move toward improving IT efficiency through the use of micro-services, like cloud computing. That shift is hurting EMC's revenues and forcing it to restructure its workforce.
5. Cisco Systems
• Estimated percentage of jobs to be cut this year: 20%
• Estimated number of cut employees: 14,000
• Cisco cut 2,200 employees in fiscal 2015 as a result of both the restructuring plan it announced in the previous year and attrition, according to its Securities and Exchange Commission filing.
6. HP Inc.
• Estimated percentage of jobs to be cut this year: 30%
• Estimated number of cut employees: 14,000
• HP is on a path to take a big chunk of the projected layoffs in Chowdhry's forecast for 2016. In its February first-quarter earnings announcement, the company announced plans to accelerate its restructuring plans.
7. Microsoft
• Estimated percentage of jobs to be cut this year: 15%
• Estimated number of cut employees: 18,000
• Some of the Microsoft layoffs that Chowdhry is expecting this year are partially coming from the company's plans to eliminate up to 7,800 positions. Those job cuts are expected to be completed by June 30 as part of its phone hardware restructuring plan, according to Microsoft's financial statement.
8. Oracle
• Estimated percentage of jobs to be cut this year: 20%
• Estimated number of cut employees: 26,000
• Oracle is yet another example of a tech titan hit by a technology shift and movement of its customers to micro-services, said Chowdhry, in sizing up Oracle's potential layoffs.
9. Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE)
• Estimated percentage of jobs to be cut this year: 30%
• Estimated number of cut employees: 72,000
• Hewlett Packard Enterprise noted in its most recent earnings call in March that it expected to eliminate 3,000 positions by the end of the first quarter. That is just a fraction of the approximate 30,000 job cuts it plans to make by the end of 2018, according to its filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
10. IBM
• Estimated Percentage Of Jobs To Be Cut This Year: 25%
• Estimated Number of Cut Employees: 95,000
• Big Blue is expected to take the largest swath of workers out with massive layoffs in 2016, according to Chowdhry. He points to IBM suffering from the challenges of a technology shift to the cloud, where its customers no longer need to buy as much of its hardware as in the past as they sign up for cloud services.

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