HP says job cuts plan will reach 29,000

Hewlett-Packard Co., the world’s largest personal-computer maker, expanded the total job cuts under its reorganization plan announced in May to 29,000, more than it had originally disclosed.]

The cuts, exceeding the 27,000 estimated earlier, will take place through fiscal year 2014, Hewlett-Packard said today (Sept. 10) in a regulatory filing. The company said it will book reorganization expenses of about $3.7 billion during the period.

Hewlett-Packard is grappling with slower demand for printers, services and data-center equipment. The company said in May that it will fire workers and make early retirement offers to generate annual savings of as much as $3.5 billion starting in 2014. Many cuts will take place in the ailing enterprise services group, which manages data centers and provides information-technology consulting.

“It’s more than they said last time, but who’s to say it’s not going to get higher if things get worse?,” said Brian White, an analyst at Topeka Capital Markets in New York. “They’ve got a lot of wood to chop, and this is a long-term turnaround story.”

Hewlett-Packard rose less than 1% to $17.43 at the close in New York. The shares have declined 32% this year.

The company last month said it would write down the value of its enterprise-services business by about $8 billion. As part of restructuring, the unit will lose approximately 8,000 positions, including 7,300 eliminated as of July 31, Hewlett- Packard said in the filing today.

Former CEO Mark Hurd pushed into enterprise services with the $13.2 billion purchase of Electronic Data Systems Corp. in 2008.