IBM, NY State Reach Deals on Tech Jobs

ARMONK, NY-IBM and the Cuomo administration have reached a deal for the computer giant to keep 3,100 high-tech jobs in the Hudson Valley near its global headquarters here, and to anchor the Buffalo Information Technologies Innovation and Commercialization Hub. The agreement with SUNY College Nanoscale Science and Engineering in Albany calls for IBM, which likely will announce more layoffs in the next few weeks, to maintain at least 3,100 Hudson Valley jobs through at least the end of 2016.

The Hudson Valley commitment reportedly includes a restoration of 750 positions that were lost to a round of downsizing last year. Big Blue's agreement with CNSE, where it is already a key tenant, encompasses semiconductor jobs in Duchess County and the company's Westchester County facilities in Yorktown Heights, as well as in Albany.

SUNY's CNSE also is a party to the Buffalo agreement, with IBM anchoring what will be a 100,000-square-foot, state-owned IT facility to train current and future workers and develop software. IBM's tenancy at the Hub will entail the creation of 500 new jobs. In announcing the agreement, Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Monday called the Hub "the next major addition to the high-tech network we are building in Western New York."

Additionally, the company will become the first founding technology member of the New York Genomic Medicine Network, a partnership between the New York Genome Center and the University at Buffalo's Center for Computational Research to advance biomedical research and grow the genomic medicine industry in New York. In his 2014 State of the State address, Cuomo pledged more than $100 million for the network, which is intended to link New York City's university medical community with the emerging Buffalo medical technology corridor.

Last month, the Cuomo administration announced forward progress on the Buffalo High-Tech Manufacturing Innovation Hub at RiverBend, in which a pair of California-based energy firms, Soraa and Silevo, agreed to invest a combined $1.5 billion into the project. By contrast, IBM has been headquartered in New York State since its founding as the Computing Tabulating Recording Co. in 1912.