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HP Makes More Money, Cuts 16,000 Jobs

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.'"

8 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.

      --
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    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 . . .

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    There are many brands that no longer represent their heritage: Philips, Zenith, Bell Labs, Kodak...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

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  3. 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.

    --
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  4. 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 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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    2. 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...

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