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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.'"

12 of 288 comments (clear)

  1. It's sad what has happened to HP by jhylkema · · Score: 5, Insightful

    They used to make really cool, quality stuff (Agilent Technologies anyone?) Now they're reduced to selling disposable printers and ink that costs more than vintage Dom. Gee thanks, Carly.

    1. Re:It's sad what has happened to HP by Nethemas+the+Great · · Score: 5, Insightful

      So instead of leveraging their assets (their employees) to develop new and relevant products they choose to gut the place to appease shareholders in the short-term. What a disgusting waste. The brand HP is meaningless without the talent that once stood behind it.

      --
      Two of my imaginary friends reproduced once ... with negative results.
    2. Re:It's sad what has happened to HP by PolygamousRanchKid+ · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Hewlett-Packard . . . ? A company built up by great engineers, run down by bad MBAs . . .

      --
      Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
  2. Just think of how much they'd save if they just by mark_reh · · Score: 4, Insightful

    got rid of ALL the employees!

    I suggest they start at the top!

  3. Printer Ink by Frosty+Piss · · Score: 5, Insightful

    All of my calculators used to be HP, all of my bench equipment was HP or Tektronix. But these days, I no longer own an ink-jet printer, so I don't buy printer ink, so HP has nothing for me.

    There are many brands that no longer represent their heritage: Philips, Zenith, Bell Labs, Kodak...

    It's sad, but it's life, HP hasen't been a "high tech" company foe several years, they have been a "re-brander" of Chinese consumer products.

    --
    If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
  4. Brought to you by the campaign to re-elect.... by eclectro · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It proves that if you can give a corporation tax breaks and throw off the shackles of regulation, they will do better and want to hire more people. Oh...wait.

    --
    Take the cheese to sickbay, the doctor should see it as soon as possible - B'Elanna Torres, "Learning Curve"
  5. Can I have a pinch of salt with that by mrops · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Being an Indian, I understand the frustration when support goes out to some dude in India who barely speaks English. I have been there myself, not only that, I have been asked how I made it to Canada.

    Nonetheless, those that do make the H1B cut are not the same that answer those phone calls. H1B may be fresh grads, however most have engineering degrees, at the start of which they had to compete against 500,000 applicants for a under 10000 seats. Further, seats in Computer engineering which are valued more so than others are probably around 1000.

    Furthermore, there is a contrast in fee, in US, a student might have to bail out if he cannot afford the education, so not only do you have to be smart, you have to be rich, contrasting that to peanuts, the competition gets very very tough back in India.

    So joke all you want, those that do make it to US are rather smart and hard working.

    I'm not saying they are not exploited, they are. The solution is simple, the employer has to prove, H1B is needed as local talent cannot be found, if thats the case, do not tie H1B to an employer, let the employee roam free. You will see a drastic cut in H1B and abuse of new immigrants.

    1. Re:Can I have a pinch of salt with that by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The problem isn't Hindi-speakers, it is the US H-1B system that may not have a lot of people totally, but in the relatively narrow market of development and IT, it severely destroys wages.

      The threat of a H-1B is like one not seen in any other industry. If you are a lawyer, accountant, or in any other profession, your boss can't threaten (and follow through) with being fired and replaced with someone who works for $16,000 a year, has a full CCIE or MCSE. In /. post a few days ago, I had a similar experience to someone who posted about being fired after he cleaned up a bad admin and was replaced by a H-1B because his boss said, "H-1Bs don't do sabotage".

      It is the abuse of H-1Bs, and the fact that they seem to be treated by management as the emissaries of $DEITY, the solution for all problems.

      As for proving H-1Bs are needed, that is trivially easy to abuse. I've seen places have a "secret requirement" for jobs, where -nobody- fits the requirement, so they get their minimum wage worker. I personally have had to train a H-1B replacement whose only qualification over me was the fact that he was a bargain basement worker, and that if he didn't toe the line 24/7/365, he would be sent back to Mumbai almost immediately.

      Another excuse for H-1Bs I've personally seen were job reqs that had three pages of listings. Again, nobody had 12 years of Windows Server 2012, 25 years of OS X, and so on. Again, nobody locally meets those reqs, so the company hits Tata or Infosys and lo and behold, they get a H-1B for that developer position who is willing to work obscene hours for peanuts.

      Don't take it personally. It isn't the H-1B who is trying to make life better for themselves. It is the fscked US system and the managers who abuse the process, begging politicians to open the floodgates and entirely destroy work segments, similar to how meat packing and textiles were destroyed as blue collar work.

      It is so common, it is obscene. I have seen perfectly competant developer groups tossed and all coding offshored. The result was broken stuff that ended up requiring more money and man-hours to get working than it would have cost in paying some people decent salaries.

    2. Re:Can I have a pinch of salt with that by TheGratefulNet · · Score: 5, Insightful

      So joke all you want, those that do make it to US are rather smart and hard working.

      sorry, not my experience at all (20+ years in the bay area and I have tons of experience with indians). they THINK they are good, but the code quality, design quality and attention to detail is far below par.

      I hate saying that. I really do, but it tends to be true. indians study by memorizing and they tend to be great at that; but when it comes to thinking things thru, they fall down. the education system encourages rote memorization.

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      --
      "It is now safe to switch off your computer."
    3. Re:Can I have a pinch of salt with that by Maxo-Texas · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The annual number of H1B visas issued 85,000.

      However, the number of H1B visas working in the USA is closer to 750,000 today.

      (it was about 650,000 in 2009.
      http://cis.org/estimating-h1b-...)

      There are roughly five million STEM jobs including immigrant labor and native born labor.

      So about 1/8 of all these jobs are taken by H1B visas.

      Meanwhile, there are almost double the number of native born with STEM degrees.

      There is not a shortage of workers. There is a shortage of workers willing to work for low wages.

      http://www.breitbart.com/Big-G...

      --
      She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
    4. Re:Can I have a pinch of salt with that by dryeo · · Score: 4, Insightful

      It's not so much the low wages but being in-servitude. Employers love having workers who will do anything they're asked and that they don't have to worry about them complaining about things like working conditions or going to work somewhere better.

      --
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverted_totalitarianism
  6. Re:non news by Billly+Gates · · Score: 4, Insightful

    ... and the good performers, innovators, and managers as well. You are left with those who just need a job because they have a questionable resume.

    People forget companies do not create great products. PEOPLE DO! I can't make the best widget in the world without the best engineers. ID Software needed John Carmack to make doom back in the 486 days before 3d cards. It was not the brand image that created it. It was the employee.

    HP cares more about financially engineering its stock price to rise each quarter and then sell it when it can't maximize than to innovate.

    Fiona really did a job on that company. Most of the innovators went to Agilent systems which makes more money than to try to monopolize the pc market which is what Fiona wanted by buying compaq and just focusing on this. Bad bed and the Bill and Hewlett way is gone. As good employers were fired if they did not leave already as senior folks cost money etc.

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    http://saveie6.com/