Please. "Cringely predicted layoffs" is like saying that someone predicted that it might snow sometime during this winter in New York.
IBM has been laying off consistently every year since the 1990s. It's really not a great feat to predict they'll do so again. In fact, I'll come out and predict layoffs for February 2017 right now.
What he TRIED to predict was a massive, sudden global 26% cut in a month's time last year, stating that by February 28, 2015 that many worldwide IBMers were going to get walking papers. It didn't happen. Yes, people got laid off, as they always do this time of year, but not in nearly the numbers or nearly in the short span of time he said.
Cringely is a self-promoting moron. He can't even write a decent book without cutting and pasting large chunks of the comments section from his blog.