Computer giant Hewlett-Packard (HP) says it plans to spend $1bn (£686m) and shed a further 9,000 jobs over three years as it creates fully-automated commercial data centres. HP, the world’s largest technology company by sales, says the job cuts will be the result of productivity gains and automation. The cuts come on top of 6,700 […]
Computer giant Hewlett-Packard (HP) says it plans to spend $1bn (£686m) and shed a further 9,000 jobs over three years as it creates fully-automated commercial data centres. HP, the world’s largest technology company by sales, says the job cuts will be the result of productivity gains and automation. The cuts come on top of 6,700 job cuts made last year.
HP added that it would replace about 6,000 of the jobs that were lost, adding that the changes to the workforce would be made over time and would vary by country. The firm said it would record a $1bn financial cost charge in the course of its 2013 financial year. “As a result of productivity gains and automation, HP expects to eliminate roughly 9,000 positions over a multi-year period to reinvest for further growth and to increase shareholder value,” it said. It said the shake-up would make it annual gross savings of about $1bn and net savings “after reinvestment in a range between $500m and $700m”.
02/06/2010
And it said the commercial data centres would help its corporate clients run their businesses faster and more efficiently, after it bought EDS in 2008 for $13.9bn.
HP said it would swallow a $1bn charge between now and its 2013 financial year, half of which would be stumped up in the firm’s third quarter.
“Over the past 20 months, we focused on integrating EDS and improving profitability,” said HP enterprise services senior veep Tom Iannotti. “Now that the integration is largely complete, we have identified significant opportunities to grow and scale the business. These next-generation services will enable our clients to benefit from the combined technology and services leadership that only HP offers.”
HP has about 304,00 employees and operates in about 170 countries. The company did not reveal a breakdown of the number of jobs it planned to cut in each country or region.
Last month the company posted better-than-expected quarterly results as technology spending revived across all markets. HP reported net profit of $2.2bn compared with $1.7bn in the same quarter a year ago.
