HP cuts up to 35,000 jobs

Fears have emerged for some 4,000 Irish workers after global IT company Hewlett-Packard announced a second wave of job cuts that will see up to 35,000 employees lose their jobs globally.

The latest round of job losses comes on the back of 55,000 layoffs announced last year and creates renewed doubt over the positions of those employed in Ireland.

HP employs approximately 4,000 workers at its Irish plants in Leixlip, Co Kildare, where the majority are based, as well as Swords and Galway.

In its announcement, the company gave no further details of the job losses but it is understood the majority will come from the Enterprise Services division.

HP said it is targeting $2bn of annual cost savings in order to help the Enterprise Services business achieve a long-term, sustainable operating profit margin of between 7% and 9%.

The firm is also planning to split into two separate entities in November with Hewlett-Packard Enterprise focusing on hardware and services for the corporate sector and HP Inc becoming the consumer-facing business with a focus on its PC and printer business.

A further $0.7bn is being targeted from the separation of Enterprise Services from the rest of the organisation.

As a standalone company, Hewlett Packard Enterprise expects fiscal 2016 revenue to grow year-over-year in constant currency.

Meg Whitman says this is the last round of job cuts at HP, really http://t.co/hPGl3Sjy4K by @ahess247 pic.twitter.com/ZwswqFlbmU

— Recode (@Recode) September 16, 2015

“These restructuring activities will enable a more competitive, sustainable cost structure for the new Hewlett Packard Enterprise,” HP chief executive Meg Whitman said.

“We’ve done a significant amount of work over the past few years to take costs out and simplify processes and these final actions will eliminate the need for any future corporate restructuring.”

No timeframe was provided yesterday in determining the specifics of where the jobs would be cut.

Last October, the company announced that 55,000 roles would be cut as part of its corporate reorganisation.

The figure was a revision of its initial forecast of 45,000 as it struggled to catch up with its rivals.

At $48.75bn, HP’s market capitalisation is dwarfed by Microsoft at $351.75bn and Apple’s which stands at $663.11bn.