Hewlett-Packard to axe 24,600 jobs

Hewlett Packard has announced that the company is all set to cut 24,600 jobs, which is about 7.5 per cent of its workforce.

The job cuts would be spread over a period of three years, starting now. HP has said that it will offer lucrative packages, counseling and new job placement services for employees who are being shown the door.

It is expected that positions in the information technology, human resources, marketing, real estate, legal and finance departments will face the axe. HP has 210,000 total employees worldwide, who help bring in more than 38 billion dollars in revenue per year. The company is expected to replace almost half of its workforce over the next three years to create a global employee base which would boast of the best delivery capabilities.

The HP job cut announcement has come in line with the company’s plans to integrate Electronic Data Systems into its business. The $13.9 billion acquisition of EDS by HP had ensured that most of the 24,000 job cuts will come from EDS  workforce. Coupled with this,  HP will also slowly replace half of the jobs in new business sectors, most of them likely to be US-based. It may be recalled that the EDS buy was intended at pushing HP’s prospects to be in the same league as IBM.

Meanwhile, HP is undeterred as it plans to goes ahead with the announcements made regarding the downsizing. The company has said that believes it has the broadest technology capabilities in the market to meet customer needs always and that it has a strong track record of making acquisitions and integrating them to capture leading market positions.