- Hewlett-Packard (HP) will shed up to 2% of its worldwide marketing staff as a result of continuing restructuring efforts, the company says.
The company aims to shed up to 2% of its 88,500-strong workforce, or 1770 staff, by the end of April, says HP spokesman Dave Bouffard.
HP's ongoing restructuring programme has seen the number of product lines cut from 83 to 16, and the number of major internal organisations reduced to just four: sales, marketing, manufacturing and development.
As a result of these changes, "some of the marketing was in the wrong places," Bouffard says.
The cuts will affect as many as 350 jobs in Europe, Bouffard says. The plans were announced to employees in an internal memo last week.
"Affected employees may be able to take other positions in HP if they have the competitive skills," he says. A "limited number" of opportunities were available in the company's sales and consulting divisions, he says.
Bouffard does not expect the cuts to affect customers. "The focus of this is to increase our customer-facing operations, to have a better mix of customer-facing staff."