These People Are Thrilled With the Economy, Too!

[beccachow]

"As a gauge of how personal computer sales are faring, Hewlett-Packard Co.'s quarterly results clouded the issue rather than provided clarity.

HP's profit dropped 17 percent to $1.72 billion and sales fell 3 percent to $27.4 billion in its fiscal second quarter, dragged down by lighter sales in two key areas - PCs and printer ink.

The company also announced more layoffs: some 6,400 workers, or 2 percent of HP's global staff of 321,000, will lose their jobs over the next year as the company shrinks its product divisions. HP, whose products include PCs, printers, computer servers, ink and toner cartridges, didn't provide more detail on those cuts.

The layoffs come on top of the 24,600 jobs HP was already dumping as part of its acquisition of Electronic Data Systems, a technology services provider HP bought for $13.9 billion last year to mount a bigger challenge to IBM Corp."



Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/money/200...#ixzz0pcBWS1Lj

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These people will have lots of time off to celebrate the economy's recovery.

[How Do I]

We have the interwebs and it still takes this long for news to reach us homesteaders?

[plowjockey]

When did $17.2 billion in quarterly profits, become a bad thing?

HP did not make their projections , due to restructuring charge offs and other usual mumbo-jumbo. This is normal corporate stuff, that wall street pretends they didn't know about,

The layoffs are part of recent aquisitions and redundancy that still lingered from the Compaq "merger". Plus PC sales are flat, much in part as people don't see the reasons to buy regular system upgrades, as they did in the past. Printer ink is a nil profit item anymore. Also, a $300 notebook PC is no longer a money maker.

My BIL is getting permantly "laid off" from HP, after 16 years, starting with Compaq. Surprisingly, they are firing him 100 days before he would qualify for retiree medical benefits. He worked like a dog for HP, which turned from a great corporation, to a cut-throat buracuracy, of people stomping on each other to get to the top and doing whatever it take to protect their turf. He regularily put in 80 hour weeks, with constant calls in the middle of the night. Half of the new people did not know anything (but were hired cheaper), so he ended doing a lot of their work. He will be better off in the long run.

HP laid off many people in good times, when they merged with DEC and Compaq.

Hopefully, those laid off will find work soon, with a company better than HP.

[beccachow]

PJ, I sincerely hope so too.

[blooba]

Well here's some more to celebrate with them. Guess this is just mumbo jumbo.

CitiFinancial unit will shut 330 of its U.S. branches and cut between 500 and 600 jobs, in an effort to cut costs at the business and make it more attractive to potential buyers.

Citigroup said on Tuesday that it would shut about 18 percent of CitiFinancial's 1,833 U.S. branches and stop making loans at another 182 branches.

CitiFinancial is now among the businesses that Citigroup is hoping to sell or wind down.