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HP Makes More Money, Cuts 16,000 Jobs

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the leaner-yet dept.

jfruh (300774) writes "Good news for HP: Profits are up by 18% over the previous year! Bad news for HP: A lot of those profits are from post-Windows XP PC upgrades, and company revenue actually dipped 1%. The solution, according to CEO Meg Whitman, is "continuous improvement in our cost structure," which means firing thousands of people. At the end of the next round of layoffs, the company will have shed 50,000 employees since 2012." New submitter Deveauxes (3664417) links to a similar story from CNN's news service, according to which "HP said the latest layoffs would come across all its business units and geographic locations, and would generate $1 billion in annual savings beyond the $3.5 to $4 billion projected from the previously announced cuts. 'No company likes to decrease the work force, and we recognize that this is difficult for employees,' CEO Meg Whitman said in a conference call with analysts. 'I think everyone understands the turnaround we're in.'"

6 of 288 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Bringing in the Indians!! by supremebob · · Score: 5, Informative

    I thought that they still relocating entire offices to third world countries, and staffing them with people making $3 an hour to do your tech support calls. You can't get H1B's for that cheap!

    What... you still want tech support that can actually understand English and isn't just navigating through a troubleshooting flow chart to "fix" your problem? You better pony up for the Gold level Enterprise support package for $$$$$$ a month.

  2. How about cutting severance packages first? by BeanBagKing · · Score: 4, Informative

    Wasn't HP the one that, not long ago, hired and fired about 5 CEO's in the course of 7 years. Paying each a 8 figure severance package on their way out?

    1. Re:How about cutting severance packages first? by BeanBagKing · · Score: 5, Informative

      Since this was marked informative (thank you) I thought it would be fun to dig up the actual figures. It isn't quite as bad as I seem to remember, but I still think it's indicative of a company that pays far too much to CEO's that are either temporary, or fail to perform. Feel free to correct me where I've made a mistake, this isn't the type of thing I want to spend all night on, but perhaps someone would have fun finding their actual yearly salaries and bonuses.

      CEO Carly Fiorina served from 1999 to 2005, since then it looks like HP has had 5 CEO's including the current one

      Carly Fiorina - July 1999 to Feb 2005 - $20m severance
      Robert Wayman - Feb 2005 to Mar 2005 - $3m cash bonus - Interim CEO
      Mark Hurd - April 2005 to Aug 2010 - $12.2m severance
      Cathie Lesjack - Aug 2010 to Sep 2010 - $1m cash bonus, 2.5m stock grants - Interim CEO
      Leo Apotheker - Sep 2010 to Sep 2011 - $7.2m severance
      Meg Whitman - Sep 2011 to Present


      So I was exaggerating a bit, but lets look at this from a worst case scenario.

      From 2005 to 2011 (6 years) HP had 6 CEO's, that's an average of a CEO a year (not really, because we're taking the end of one's career and the beginning of another, but like I said, worst case). Not including their regular "pay", they took home a total of $45.9m in severance pay, an average of $9.18m per CEO not including Meg, who has yet to receive a severance package (we're waiting..). Basically, that's 9.2m for each for being fired. Here's the crazy part. The Interim CEO's, who by all accounts did a fine job (looking mostly at Robert Wayman), got paid less than those who were "let go" (namely Mark Hurd and Leo Apotheker)

      So things aren't quite as bad with the CEO's as I seem to have remembered, but I still feel like that's fairly abismal performance for a company that has been falling off a cliff since... well, since I can remember. Granted I'm young compared to some of you, but I can remember the days before Carly Fiorina, and a time I wouldn't go near HP computers because of how terrible I thought they were, for a variety of reasons that's pointless to debate here.

  3. Re:Meg and Carly sitting in a tree by NoNonAlphaCharsHere · · Score: 5, Informative

    Almost right. Actually, it's upper management who gets wealthy in the name of "shareholder wealth". But yeah, too bad about the rest of the economy.

  4. Re:Bringing in the Indians!! by sumdumass · · Score: 5, Informative

    As for the English speaking, all you have to do is explain to them that you have a hearing problem and need to speak with someone who is accent free in English. They will bend over backwards to get you to a native English speaker (quasi Americans with disabilities act and all).

    Now the downside to this is more time on hold. The upside- beside understanding what they are saying- is that the native English speaker will likely by a higher level tech who can go outside the chart without delving into "please insert the restore CD into the computer" or at least be able to warn about backups first. but there is no guarantee. Well, I guess now there is no restore CD, press key combination and select restore?

  5. Re:Slashdot Login Page has expired SSL certificate by Soulskill · · Score: 4, Informative

    It sure did. Working on getting it fixed now. Apologies if it inconvenienced you!