Cringely definitely tends to... exaggerate but I have to say, getting IBM to even ballpark the number of people they're cutting is quite a feat. Remember this is the company that doesn't break down its head count for "competitive reasons" and prefers to stagger cuts so they don't trigger WARN in various jurisdictions.
Not sure of the original source, but a meme I've been seeing around the Internets lately goes something like
"The best way to get an answer to a question on the Internet, is not to ask the question, but to give a wrong answer and wait for people to correct you."
I'm not sure whether this was is what Cringely was up to, but if it was, well played indeed.
