HP to lay off 27,000 as profit slides 31%

Hewlett-Packard Co plans to lay off roughly 27,000 employees or about 8% of its workforce over the next couple of years to jumpstart growth and save up to $3.5 billion annually, sending its shares up 11%.

Hewlett-Packard Co plans to lay off roughly 27,000 employees or about 8% of its workforce over the next couple of years to jumpstart growth and save up to $3.5 billion annually, sending its shares up 11%.

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The company said the layoffs would be made mainly through early retirement and would generate annual savings of $30-3.5 billion as it exits fiscal year 2014, when the layoffs are expected to the completed.

The world's No. 1 personal computer maker, which employs more than 300,000 people globally, on Wednesday reported a 31% fall in second-quarter profit and a 3% decline in revenue, compared with the year-ago period.

Layoffs "adversely impact people's lives, but in this case, they are absolutely critical to the long-term health of the company," CEO Meg Whitman said. "This is broad based. By design, it will touch all of HP."

HP will take a pretax charge of $1.7 billion in fiscal 2012 related to the layoffs.

The company also plans to launch tablets -- for both consumers and corporations -- later this year, said Whitman. "We will have a Windows 8 tablet for the holiday."

India operations also likely to be hit

-Mumbai/HTC

HP's global layoffs are also likely to affect the company's India operations, a company spokesperson said on Thursday. "We do expect the workforce reduction to impact just about every business and region. Beyond this, we don't have any additional information to share."