Hewlett-Packard to cut 30,000 jobs: report

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By AFP

Struggling Hewlett-Packard will unveil a vast restructuring plan next week that will include axing about 30,000 jobs, Dow Jones's AllThingsD reported Thursday.

HP chief executive Meg Whitman will discuss the first steps in the restructuring next Wednesday when the company reports its quarterly earnings, AllThingsD said, citing sources familiar with the company's plans.

During a conference call with analysts, Whitman will portray the cuts as necessary "not to bolster HP's earnings and satisfy shareholders, but rather as a means to make needed investments," it said.

"The cuts will be carried out over a relatively long period of time, perhaps a year or more."

According to the sources, Whitman will argue that many of the cuts made at HP during the five years that Mark Hurd was at its helm were made without corresponding investments in new and growing initiatives.

In February, the Palo Alto, California-based HP posted a 44 percent drop in net profit during the first quarter of its fiscal year to $1.5 billion from a year ago, and a seven percent decline in revenue to $30.0 billion.

Whitman has vowed to turn the company around. A former chief executive of eBay and unsuccessful candidate for governor of California, Whitman took the reins at HP in September after her predecessor, Leo Apotheker, was ousted after just 11 months on the job.