HP is to cut 9,000 jobs over the next three years as part of global restructuring efforts aimed at improving data centre efficiency.
The redundancies are part of HP's strategy to step up its automated data centre operations, and represent the final step in a roadmap laid out after it purchased EDS in August 2008 for $13.9 billion (9.53 billion).
HP, the world's largest IT company with around 300,000 employees worldwide, says the restructuring will cost around $1 billion (686 million) to implement, but will lead to an annual saving of around $1 billion in the longer term. HP did not say how many UK jobs are under threat.
Shortly after purchasing EDS, HP announced a separate three-year plan that would see 24,000 jobs cut a programme that is still in progress.
"Over the past 20 months, we focused on integrating EDS and improving profitability," said Tom Iannotti, senior vice president and general manager of HP Enterprise Services.
"Now that the integration is largely complete, we have identified significant opportunities to grow and scale the business. These next-generation services will enable our clients to benefit from the combined technology and services leadership that only HP offers."
In a conference call, Ann Livermore, who heads up HP's enterprise services business, said the company was responding to changing market conditions. "We have an opportunity to further accelerate our competitive advantage," she said. "We think the next 10 years are going to be about who can automate the delivery of services."
In total, HP has shed more than 75,000 jobs in the past decade, though the total headcount has more than tripled in that time because of the acquisition of EDS and smartphone maker Palm.
HP's latest restructuring announcement also mentions plans to hire 6,000 people in sales and global delivery centres.
