Layoffs planned for HP Enterprise Services

HP plans to cut as many as 30,000 people from its payroll as it prepares to split off the HP Enterprise Services business into a separate entity.

As it makes its march toward splitting into a separate company, Hewlett-Packard’s Enterprise business plans to shed up to 30,000 people.

The layoffs are part of ongoing cost reductions and are expected to yield savings of $2.7 billion annually. The cuts will help the company achieve sustainable 7 percent to 9 percent operating profit margins.

HP officials were not available for comment on how the cuts would impact the public sector business.

Company CEO Meg Whitman called the layoffs “final actions” for setting up HP Enterprise as a separate company from HP Inc. HP Enterprise will be focused on the business and public sector markets looking to buy services and integrated technology solutions. HP Inc. will be focused on the more consumer markets such as PCs and printers.

“These restructuring activities will enable a more competitive, sustainable cost structure for the new Hewlett Packard Enterprise," she said.

HP Enterprise will be led by Whitman and will have about $50 billion in annual revenue.

Since coming on board in 2011, Whitman has a led a significant retrenching of the company including the planned split and reduction headcount to the tune of 55,000, not counting the latest cuts.