HP to axe Autonomy staff

But it will bring in 50 new engineers to offset the layoffs

HP is to axe staff from its Autonomy business in a shake-up that will also see the company take on 50 new engineers.

In an email published by AllThingsD, Robert Youngjohns (pictured), who took over as Autonomy CEO from Mike Lynch in September 2012, said the division's Aurasma augmented reality platform would be subsumed into HP's printers and personal systems group (PPS), adding that the move would likely lead to job losses.

"This transition will require some changes to the Aurasma business as we to move to the next stage. While a number of roles will remain largely unaffected by this, other roles within Aurasma will no longer be required going forward and some work force reduction is likely," he said.

However, he added that an increased investment in HP's research and development capabilities should lead to 50 engineering jobs being created in the Autonomy division.

Late last year, HP CEO Meg Whitman claimed that a "whistle blower" had come forward alleging that Autonomy had engaged in dubious accounting practices that had artificially inflated the growth of the company's software business.

Autonomy was acquired by HP for $11.1bn (£7bn) in August 2011, but in November HP filed a $5bn (£3.15bn) writedown in the value of the acquisition.

Earlier this week, Computing asked HP vice president for enterprise services UK Craig Wilson if Autonomy was likely to shed any staff and how many had left since HP wrote down the value of its acquisition.

"We don't share that, we don't share precise stat numbers of any our divisions but what I can say is that we continue to have staff at Autonomy," he said.