HP plans to lay off thousands

Palo Alto’s HP told investors this week the company plans to lay off between 4,000 and 6,000 people in its offices across the world during the next two years, making it the latest Bay Area tech company to slash jobs.

The company builds computing hardware and software and told investors earlier this year it had about 51,000 employees worldwide.

The job cuts are part of what the company calls its “Future Ready” strategy, estimating it could save $1.4 billion annually by the end of the fiscal year 2025.

“Looking forward, the new Future Ready strategy we introduced this quarter will enable us to better serve our customers and drive long-term value creation by reducing our costs and reinvesting in key growth initiatives to position our business for the future,” Enrique Lores, HP’s president and CEO, said in a statement.

Earlier this month, Meta, formerly Facebook, cut 11,000 jobs from its payrolls as a global economic slowdown and a sluggish advertising market hit its bottom line.

Amazon said it would cut 10,000 jobs, some of them software roles in Sunnyvale, while Salesforce, San Francisco’s largest private employer, reportedly laid off hundreds of salespeople earlier this month.

New owner Elon Musk recently said cuts would stop, for now, at San Francisco’s Twitter, the Verge reported, after he laid off more than half of the company’s 7,500-strong workforce shortly after his takeover of the company.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise, which focuses on products for business enterprise companies, announced in 2020 it would move its headquarters to Texas to save on costs and recruit more talent.

HP is still based in Palo Alto but split from Hewlett Packard Enterprises in 2015 and continues to focus on making consumer computers and printers.