HP lays off 14,500 people

Corporations are seldom nice and today there's another splendid example of this as HP announced new plans to save $1.9 billion annually. They also say the new plan will drive growth and increase business performance. Over the next six quarters the company will lay off almost 10 percent, or 14,500 employees from its regular full-time staff.

Starting in 2007 the company hopes the save $1.6 billion in labor costs and $300 million in benefits savings. For next year the company expects savings of $0.9 billion to $1.05 billion. The majority of the workforce reductions will come in support functions, such as information technology, human resources and finance.

The company will invest about half of the savings to offset market forces or reinvest in itself to strengthen HP's competitiveness. More details regarding HP's plans can be found here. Some time ago HP published its Q2 2005 financial results. They posted a record second quarter revenue of $21.6 billion and a GAAP operating profit of $1.2 billion.