IBM has announced plans to cut around 3,900 employees or 1.5 percent of its workforce following a quarterly earnings report that showed the legacy tech firm missing its annual cash flow target.  

The cuts will mainly impact workers who remain after IBM spins off its Kendryl and Watson Health units, which will cost the company $300 million in the coming quarter. Other areas of the business could still see hiring growth, Chief Financial Officer James Kavanaugh told Bloomberg. 

IBM touted the importance of emerging technologies to its business model, which could help drive modest but steady growth in the coming year. 

"Clients in all geographies increasingly embraced our hybrid cloud and AI solutions as technology remains a differentiating force in today's business environment," said Arvind Krishna, IBM chairman and chief executive officer. "Looking ahead to 2023, we expect full-year revenue growth consistent with our mid-single digit model."

IBM joins a growing list of tech firms to make layoffs in recent weeks. So far in 2023, 59,448 employees were laid off in the sector, according to tracker site Layoffs.fyi. Amazon, Google, and Microsoft have all announced large cuts since the beginning of the year. 

Many companies have laid off between five and 10 percent, placing IBM on the lower end in terms of the scope of the cuts. Just this week, Spotify announced that it was cutting around 6 percent of its workforce.