HP confirms 27,000 job cuts

HP has announced it will slash 27,000 jobs worldwide by October 2014 as part of a restructuring plan that will cut its global headcount by eight percent.

The company confirmed the layoffs in a filing to the Securities and Exchange Commission, shortly after reporting a three percent year-on-year decline in second quarter 2012 earnings. 

The layoffs will be felt differently around the world “based on local legal requirements and consultation with employee work councils”, it said.

The cuts would bring HP's total global headcount to less than 300,000 employees.

The last major round of layoffs began in 2008, shortly after its US$13.9 billion acquisition of outsourcing giant EDS. That acquisition nearly doubled HP’s headcount. 

HP did not say whether any particular division would bear the brunt of the layoffs but it was tipped earlier this week to make reductions in its enterprise services division.

Lynch steps down

HP’s US$11 billion software acquisition Autonomy had experienced a “significant decline in license revenue”. 

Current head of Autonomy Mike Lynch will step aside after a transition period for HP’s recently appointed chief strategist, former Microsoft veteran Bill Veghte. 

“The market and competitive positioning for Autonomy remain strong, particularly in cloud offerings,” HP said in a statement.

The Autonomy group’s decline in revenues was in contrast to HP’s relatively small software group, accounting for $970 million in the quarter, which was one of only two that grew year-on-year. 

HP’s software business grew 22 percent, while its traditional and much larger businesses by revenue - including Personal Systems Group, Services (formerly EDS), Imaging and Printing Group, and Enterprise Servers, Storage and Networking - all suffered declines of between one and ten percent.

Despite the losses, HP beat Wall Street's expectations for the quarter, the AllThingsD blog reported.