HP, the world’s largest technology company, has announced what it’s calling a ‘multi-year productivity initiative’. The restructuring scheme is expected to save up to $3.5 billion (£2.2 billion) by the end of the 2014 financial year and will see around 27,000 employees leaving.
Most of the savings will be reinvested in the company, boosting investment in innovation around three key areas: cloud, big data and security.
The 27,000 employees - around 8% of the HP workforce - will be encouraged to take early requirement.
Meg Whitman, HP’s president and CEO, said “These initiatives build upon our recent organizational realignment, and will further streamline our operations, improve our processes, and remove complexity from our business. While some of these actions are difficult because they involve the loss of jobs, they are necessary to improve execution and to fund the long term health of the company. We are setting HP on a path to extend our global leadership and deliver the greatest value to customers and shareholders.”
The news came as HP announced quarterly results that showed net revenue of $30.7 billion, down 3% year-on-year. Net profit was down 31% year-on-year to just under $1.6 billion.
In addition it says Mike Lynch, who founded the Autonomy software business bought by HP last year, is leaving and being replaced by Bill Veghte. Mr Veghte, who’s chief strategy officer at HP and executive vice president of HP Software, will “help develop the right processes and discipline to scale Autonomy and fulfill its promise”.