HP's axed jobs tally approaches 50,000 with latest losses

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Not good news

HP
Just the latest sad announcement from HP

Hewlett-Packard announced in early 2012 that it would cut 27,000 jobs by 2014, upping the number to 29,000 in September 2012 (shortly after posting its biggest loss ever).

The company increased the number again earlier this year to 34,000, but with its latest announcement it revealed it could actually cut as many as 50,000 jobs in all.

HP's second quarter 2014 fiscal report revealed that the PC company's revenue is slightly down from 2013, with a net income of $1.3 billion and Non-GAAP earnings at 88 cents per share on revenue of $27.3 billion.

But more importantly, HP could cut as many as 16,000 more employees on top of the previously announced cuts.

'Restructuring'

"In May 2012, HP adopted a multi-year restructuring plan designed to simplify business processes, accelerate innovation, lower costs and deliver better results," the company's latest report said.

It continued: "HP previously estimated that 34,000 positions would be eliminated in connection with the plan. As HP continues to reengineer the workforce to be more competitive and meet its objectives, the previously estimated number of eliminated positions will increase by between 11,000 to 16,000."

Naturally this is not good news. It's hard to pinpoint the cause of the once-again increased cuts. Though most of HP's product departments experienced revenue drops in Q2 compared with 2013, there were no truly significant losses.

Departments including software-as-a-service and licensing actually increased their revenue, as did personal systems (thanks to desktop and notebook PC sales).

Nevertheless, HP CEO Meg Whitman said in the report that "with each passing quarter, HP is improving its systems, structures and core go-to-market capabilities" and that they're "gradually shaping HP into a more nimble, lower-cost, more customer- and partner-centric company that can successfully compete across a rapidly changing IT landscape."

And if that means putting 50,000 people's jobs on the chopping block? So be it, apparently.

Via CNET

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Michael Rougeau
Michael Rougeau

Michael Rougeau is a former freelance news writer for TechRadar. Studying at Goldsmiths, University of London, and Northeastern University, Michael has bylines at Kotaku, 1UP, G4, Complex Magazine, Digital Trends, GamesRadar, GameSpot, IFC, Animal New York, @Gamer, Inside the Magic, Comic Book Resources, Zap2It, TabTimes, GameZone, Cheat Code Central, Gameshark, Gameranx, The Industry, Debonair Mag, Kombo, and others.

Micheal also spent time as the Games Editor for Playboy.com, and was the managing editor at GameSpot before becoming an Animal Care Manager for Wags and Walks.