PC giant is to slash its workforce as it struggles in mobile computing era.
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The cuts which could mean anything between 25,000-30,000 jobs lost, tipped by Wall Street Journal citing sources, who suggest the Palo Alto giant may cut up to 8% of its workforce.
Desktop giant Hewlett Packard employs almost 350,000 people globally.
HP has not made any official comment on the rumour yet but according to the ‘source’, the company will make a formal announcement at its quarterly earnings call, scheduled next week.
And in a way, it’s no surprise the biggest PC maker in the world is looking to cut costs after its major upheaval in the past year, which started off with (now) ex-CEO Leo Apotheker announcing HP may spin off its profitable PC business and WebOS platform and go gung-ho on software, like IBM did.
Apotheker later got the boot and was replaced with former eBay boss, Meg Whitman, who was hired to put HP’s troubled house back in order.
Whitman later announced the giant’s enormous PC facility was here to stay.
In March, however, HP merged its PC and Printer divisions, now called ‘Printing and Personal Systems Group.’
In Q4 HP PC shipments fell a worrying 16.2% with analysts Gartner blaming “the noise around this issue,” of its Hardware v Software conundrum.
Lower demand for traditional desktops is also hitting the giant hard.
Recently, HP has released a bundle of new PCs to Australia including Sleekbooks, Ultrabooks and business tablets, meaning it is looking to re-establish itself as a serious player in a PC market, increasingly dominated by mobile devices including Macbook, iPads and Ultrabooks.
Read: New HP Sleekbooks Look Remarkably Like MacBook Air
