24 May 2012

Job cuts at HP

9:36 pm on 24 May 2012

Hewlett-Packard, the world's largest maker of personal computers, is to cut 27,000 jobs by the end of 2014.

The company says the cuts - about 8% of its workforce - will reduce costs by up to $US3.5 billion per year.

HP said in a statement the money would be reinvested into the company. HP employs about 350,000 people worldwide.

The announcement of the job losses overshadowed the release of HP's latest quarterly results.

Profits and revenues were both better than analysts had estimated.

HP reported a 31% fall in profits in the second quarter to $US1.6 billionn. Revenue in the period fell 3% on a year ago to $US30.7 billion.

''We still have a lot of work to do,'' says chief executive Meg Whitman.

HP shares rose 6.6% in after-hours trading on Wall Street.