HP to slash 4,000 jobs to save $300m a year by 2020

Cuts will start next year

HP Inc has announced plans to cut up to 4,000 jobs from its global headcount starting in 2017 in a bid to save up to $300m a year.

The plans were revealed in HP Inc's 2017 fiscal prospects publication which showed that at least 3,000 jobs will go and possibly 4,000.

The document does not specify in which departments, roles or locations the cuts will take place, but makes clear that it will affect multiple nations.

"HP expects approximately 3,000 to 4,000 employees to exit between fiscal 2017 and fiscal 2019," it said.

"The changes to the workforce will vary by country, based on local legal requirements and consultations with employee works councils and other employee representatives, as appropriate."

It is unclear whether the cuts will affect those joining the company from Samsung's printer unit, which HP is buying for $1.05bn.

HP Inc said it expects the mass lay-offs to cost the company between $350m and $500m, $200m of which will be related to redundancy payouts.

Despite the job cuts, HP CEO Dion Weisler claimed that the company is well placed for the future after the first year since the split from Hewlett Packard Enterprises.

"We are confident in our strategy and believe it will continue to produce reliable returns and cash flow, while also enabling HP to invest in differentiated innovation and long-term growth," he said.

"Although our markets remain very challenged, we are committed to innovating in the core and continue to see long-term growth opportunities in commercial mobility and services, the disruption of the A3 copier market and the digitisation of manufacturing though our leading 3D printing solutions."

The news comes just week after HP took considerable flak for a firmware update to some of its printers that stopped them working with third-party cartridges. The firm has said since that it will roll back these changes.