Deutsche Telekom to cut 4,900 jobs from troubled IT unit

German telecom giant Deutsche Telekom will cut 4,900 jobs over the next two years from its IT and consultancy unit T-Systems, the company said on Tuesday.

"We will cut 2,700 jobs this year and 2,200 jobs next year in Germany," a spokesman told AFP, confirming a report by daily Frankfurter Allegemeine Zeitung.

T-Systems has struggled for years to turn a profit, competing with IBM, EDS and other IT giants to provide companies with their computer network systems.

The subsidiary says it currently employs about 50,000 people, but the spokesman said the layoffs were only planned in home-market Germany for now.

"We are now looking at our reach in the rest of the world and we have yet to conclude on a way forward," the spokesman added.

T-Systems generated revenue of around 9.5 billion euros ($13 billion) in the 2013 financial year.