30,000 more jobs to go at HP

Current round to hit services division, but job losses not over yet, warns CEO Meg Whitman

HP is cutting up to 30,000 jobs as it seeks to firm up its financial position ahead of its impending break up into two separate entities.

According to the Financial Times, the latest swathe of job losses will hit the services business as that part of the company increasingly turns to outsourcing to cut costs.

The cuts will come as no surprise to the market. Last month, CEO Meg Whitman stated her aim to reach "sustainable seven per cent to nine per cent operating margins", which she said would require "more restructuring and offshore alignment".

On 1 November the Silicon Valley giant will split into two separate publicly traded companies. The new services company, HP Enterprise, will be focused on cloud and security solutions and will be headed by Whitman; the less profitable PC and printers business will become HP Inc.

HP Enterprise will bear the brunt of the current round of job losses, but it is not known yet where, geographically, the axe will fall.

Whitman has overseen a massive downsizing during her tenure, with HP shedding almost 55,000 jobs since 2011. The latest cuts will add to that figure.

During an interview with CNN she warned of further cuts to come.

"I suspect yes", she said when asked whether there will be further layoffs. "As we separate these companies we see ways to improve processes to make these companies more succesful... I suspect there will be more fine tuning."