“Hewlett-Packard Co. HPQ -2.28% is cutting thousands more jobs, as efforts to revitalize the company have sputtered amid a rapidly changing technology landscape.
The Silicon Valley giant said Thursday it would cut an additional 11,000 to 16,000 jobs on top of 34,000 positions it previously said would be eliminated as part of a multiyear restructuring plan. At the midpoint of that range, the new cuts would trim an additional 4% from H-P’s workforce of about 317,500 employees.
News of the job cuts came as H-P announced results for its fiscal second quarter, revealing a drop in revenue that overshadowed higher profit. The results follow two quarters that had generally pleased investors, as the company appeared to stabilize itself under Chief ExecutiveMeg Whitman after several years of turmoil.
H-P, known largely for personal computers, server systems and printers, has been grappling with stiff competition and big shifts in the technology industry. Challenges across its array of businesses, along with the new job cuts, may complicate efforts to revive growth and innovation.
Ms. Whitman sought to portray the unexpected job cuts as an opportunity to further streamline a company that had grown bloated over the years through multiple acquisitions.
“I’m not at all disappointed, I think it’s the natural course of what makes sense in a turnaround of this size and scale,” she said. The restructuring, along with continued investments in growth areas such as cloud computing, analytics software and networking technology, would set up the beleaguered Silicon Valley icon “as a force to be reckoned with,” she said.
But some analysts wondered if Ms. Whitman was trying to get ahead of potentially weakening demand by announcing the new job cuts.
The quarterly numbers were accidentally posted on H-P’s website ahead of schedule and before the close of regular trading Thursday…”
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