14,500 job cuts announced by Hewlett-Packard

Today the Hewlett-Packard Co. has announced that it will be cutting 10% or 14,500 of it's full-time staff wil be cut over the course of the next six quarters. HP CEO Mark Hurd, who's had office for just about three months now, has decided that he wishes to simplify HP's operations by combining sales and marketing directly into business units. The job cuts are expected to save HP $1.9 billion US annually. These cuts are all part of HP's new restructuring plan, the savings from this restructuring will primarily be to “offset market forces” or in other words, to strengthen HP's competitiveness in the market.

 The job cuts don't come as much surprise, analysts had predicted cuts somewhere between 10,000 and 25,000 for some time now.

Sources

• "Hewlett-Packard to cut 14,500 jobs". MSNBC News, July 19, 2005

• "HP to cut 14,500 jobs". The Globe and Mail, July 19, 2005