While speaking from limited expertise, it is my general understanding these layoffs are a vital part in keeping a company lean and reducing bloat. Over time, in any company, some roles will be made redundant and is the reason for these occasional layoffs. If I was an investor, I would see this as a good sign of vision and a clear direction.
They say so themselves:
> "To stay competitive, we need to remove duplication of work now that we are one Arm; stop work that is no longer critical to our future success; and think about how we get work done."
Exactly. When faced with a slowdown in demand you can either be IBM and cut aggressively, or you can be DEC and keep people employed working on inane doomed projects until the company falls flat.
They say so themselves: > "To stay competitive, we need to remove duplication of work now that we are one Arm; stop work that is no longer critical to our future success; and think about how we get work done."