ENDICOTT, NY (WIVT/WBGH) – IBM is closing its offices in Endicott, eliminating the last vestiges of what was once Greater Binghamton’s largest employer and source of community pride.
A spokesperson for IBM tells NewsChannel 34 that the company has decided not to renew its lease when it expires on October 31st.
There are currently a few hundred workers still located in Endicott and some will have the opportunity to stay with the company on a remote basis.
It says it has modified how it does business over the past few years of the pandemic and no longer requires the physical space.
IBM says the decision begins a new chapter in its long and fruitful relationship with its birthplace.
It insists that it will remain engaged with Binghamton University’s Watson College of Engineering and the Endicott History and Heritage Center.
The closing of IBM’s physical presence in our community has been coming for decades, beginning with a drastic reduction of the workforce and the closing of the Glendale research and development complex in 1993.
At that time, IBM employed over 6 thousand workers in Endicott.
In 2002, IBM sold off some of its remaining circuit board business and its campus in downtown Endicott to local investors in a deal brokered by the late State Senator Tom Libous.
The Huron Campus, as it subsequently was rebranded, was sold to Phoenix Investors in 2021.
The spokesperson acknowledged the sentimental impact the announcement will have on the community.
However, the inventor of the mainframe computer’s local presence was already merely a shell of its former self.