Big Blue Doles Out Big Green

International Business Machines Corp. is doling out the biggest annual bonuses in recent history to most of its employees, the latest indication of the computer giant’s financial rebound from the early 1990s.

IBM planned to pay bonuses today averaging more than 10 percent of 1996 salary to most of its 119,000 U.S. workers. That’s up from 8 percent last year and the most since it began bonuses across its work force in 1992.

In total, IBM is distributing $1.2 billion - nearly one-fifth of 1996 profits - to its 240,000 workers around the world, according to a spokesman for the Armonk, N.Y.-based company.

The higher bonuses, ranging from about 5 percent to more than 20 percent for individual U.S. workers, were tied to improved results for the overall company and its business units, better worker performance and more customer satisfaction.