SAN FRANCISCO — Hewlett- Packard Co. said Monday it plans to slash 24,600 jobs over the next three years, nearly 8 percent of its workforce, as it combines operations with Electronic Data Systems Corp., the technology-services company it recently acquired.
The cuts represent the Palo Alto-based company’s most aggressive move yet to streamline its operations under chief executive Mark Hurd, who engineered the $13.9 billion acquisition to challenge IBM Corp. for more of the lucrative, long-term business of helping companies manage their computing infrastructure.
HP has an estimated 2,000 employees and contractors in Colorado Springs at a customer-support center. The company employs about 3,100 in Fort Collins, where it’s had a presence for more than 40 years.
Most of the cuts will come from within EDS’s ranks, and nearly half will be jobs in the U.S., HP announced Monday after the stock market closed. HP said it plans to eventually add about half the positions back as different jobs in different departments within the company.
A company spokeswoman would not say how Colorado workers would be affected, although EDS does employ an undisclosed number of workers.
Areas expected to get hit include the finance, human-resources and legal departments, areas where there are traditionally overlapping duties within combined companies.
HP had not previously detailed how many employees of the combined company would lose their jobs. Before the acquisition, HP had 178,000 people and EDS had 142,000, a total of 320,000.
HP expects to save $1.8 billion per year from the cuts once the restructuring is complete.
Staff writer Kimberly S. Johnson contributed to this report.
