HP adds to layoff tally, now plans 29,000 job cuts

SAN FRANCISCO | Mon Sep 10, 2012 12:19pm EDT

(Reuters) - Hewlett Packard now plans to layoff 29,000 employees, increasing the total number of job cuts by 2,000 over the next two years as it tries to kickstart growth.

HP, which will cut jobs through a combination of involuntary cuts and early retirement offers, expects to take charges of about $3.3 billion through the end of HP's 2014 fiscal year for the workforce reductions, it said in a regulatory filing on Monday.

The company also expects to take another $400 million in charges relating to data centers and real estate consolidation.

The world's No. 1 personal computer maker, which employs more than 300,000 people globally, has begun a multi-year restructuring aimed at focusing the sprawling company on services targeted at corporations.

Chief Executive Meg Whitman, who took the top job last September, is trying to move the company past the internal upheaval that marked 2011, including the departure of two previous chief executives.

HP will likely have cut 11,500 jobs by end of fiscal 2012, the company has said.