The alcatel Lucent Thing makes sense,right down the street and they both have something the other one wants.

As far as IBM im not quite sure of the relationship if any that exists between Bluecoat and IBM.
Assuming for a split second the Choices are IBM/Dell/HP,
can already toss HP out the window because of their relationship with Riverbed.

No inside information here,conjecture,as far as the Layoff thread the sites were named in the Press release.
They were all sites gained thru aquisitions,any people there were from those companies.

Some talented Folks Got their walking Papers however in the Big scheme of things they didnt really fit in the Long Term Picture.Even if they Werent Jettisonned their talents and skillsets were probably not of Value Anymore anyways.

My 2 cents and IMO only..