Representatives from O'Hara's office referred all questions directly to Occleshaw, who declined to comment on any of the details in the media reports. "We're still in the middle of a study on (Lotus)," Occleshaw said. IBM-owned software products include WebSphere, DB2, Tivoli, and Lotus. Earlier this month, Lotus – which currently has about 7,500 employees – announced it was laying off 183 U.S.-based employees as part of a restructuring plan to eliminate redundancies and align its management structure more closely with IBM. Under the Lotus restructuring, which first came to light in January, those working in the sales and marketing communications departments would now work under the IBM software group, though they would still be Lotus employees, Lotus spokeswoman Mary Rose Greenough told IDG News Service on March 2. The Lotus software development team would remain intact and Lotus would also retain sales and marketing staff for its own brand.