HP To Give The Axe To 27,000 Employees

Earlier today, HP announced its latest quarterly earnings and the results were not good — like “We are going to have to lay off 27,000 employees” not good.

The Wall Street Journal reports that this number represents about 8% of the electronics company’s workforce. The layoffs are expected to be completed by the end of HPs 2014 fiscal year. The company plans to reinvest the expected $3-3.5 billion savings back into the business, with a focus on cloud computing and security.

HP reported a 31% drop in earnings during this past quarter, mostly attributed to lackluster sales in its PC and printer divisions. These two groups were recently combined, as people are switching their computing to wireless devices and printing an awful lot fewer documents.

“These initiatives build upon our recent organizational realignment, and will further streamline our operations, improve our processes, and remove complexity from our business,” said CEO (and former eBay chief, and former California gubernatorial candidate) Meg Whitman. “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.”

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