Main image of article Hewlett Packard Will Lay Off 27,000
Hewlett Packard plans to lay off about 27,000 people -- or 8 percent of its workforce, most of them through early retirement offers. The company says most of those affected should depart by the end of fiscal year 2014. "Workforce reduction plans will vary by country, based on local legal requirements and consultation with works councils and employee representatives, as appropriate," it said in a statement. The reductions are part of a "multi-year productivity initiative" aimed at simplifying the way HP operates and allowing more innovation. The moves "are necessary to improve execution and to fund the long term health of the company," said CEO Meg Whitman. From HP's press release:
HP expects to reinvest savings in each of its business segments to strengthen their ability to stay ahead of customer expectations and capitalize on growing market trends.
  • HP will invest in research and development to drive innovation and differentiation across its core printing and personal systems businesses, as well as emerging areas. It will also invest in marketing, sales productivity and tools that simplify the customer experience and make it easier to do business with HP.
  • Services will invest in accelerating service capabilities in the high client value areas of cloud, security and information analytics by enhancing HP intellectual property. Services will also strengthen its industry orientation and continue to differentiate its service offerings through quality and innovation delivered to clients. Combined, these activities are expected to shift the portfolio to a more profitable mix of higher-growth services. Additional work in lean process methodologies is expected to better serve clients and increase overall efficiencies.
  • Software will invest to speed development in the areas of security, big data and the management of application lifecycle and infrastructure solutions, both on premise and in the cloud. It will also further leverage the capabilities of Autonomy and Vertica across the entire HP portfolio.
  • Enterprise Servers, Storage and Networking will invest to accelerate its research and development activities to extend its leading portfolio of servers, storage and networking. Together these assets create a Converged Infrastructure which is the foundation for top client initiatives such as cloud, virtualization, big data analytics, legacy modernization and social media.