IBM "Project Chrome" : Mass Firing Employees In India?

I'd not believe in rumours but this one comes from Forbes: According to journalist #-Link-Snipped-#, IBM is going to mass fire about 26% of its total employee base. If that's true, IBM could be firing about 110,000 employees from their workforce; about 150K of which is from India. If the numbers are correct, over 39,000 employees from India are likely to get pink slips from their managers in the coming days.

IBM's published an official comment that says the 'speculation is stupid'. The company has reported that they will take $600 million charge for 'restructuring'. Following the clarification from IBM, Robert wrote a follow-up post which includes information from his insider sources. According to the sources - IBM will fire only about 12K employees under their 'mass-firing' plan (which is internally coded Project Chrome). IBM will then ask people to leave by showing them as poor performers. The insider employee informed that several long-term employees have started getting poor grades in appraisals. About 10% of the employees had to be rated '3'.

The crux is that IBM might be working on direct and indirect ways to reduce their workforce to ensure that they make up for bad financial year. If anyone's got information to share in this regard, please do so below.