The buzz is true: Fidelity Investments plans to move as many as 1,500 employees out of Boston and spread them across a number of sites in the country by end-2008.

Fidelity, according to a Reuters report, will relocate 800 Boston-based employees in the Personal Investments division to its Smithfield campus in Rhode Island. Half of them will be moved to leased space in Providence possibly beginning June.

As for the employees in other units, their destination has yet to be disclosed.

"We've found that diversifying geographically offers a number of advantages," Fidelity spokeswoman Anne Crowley told Reuters. "It allows us to keep the business running 24/7 year round, provides redundancy for contingency planning and multiple back-up systems."

The Boston Behemoth is preparing to end leases for about 500,000 square feet in two downtown Boston high-rises, 53 State and One Federal, a move that was first reported by The Boston Herald Thursday morning, citing unnamed real executives. 

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