U.S. technology giant Hewlett-Packard (HP) said it will cut 24,600 jobs worldwide over the next three years as it begins integrating with computer services firm Electronic Data Systems. HP bought the business services outsourcing company in August as part of a $13.9 billion deal that aimed to create a global powerhouse in computer services to compete against IBM, Agence France-Presse reported. In a statement, HP said they hoped to “streamline the combined company's services businesses,” and predicted that the cuts would “result in annual cost savings of approximately $1.8 billion.” HP says merging with EDS is part of their plan to transform from a computer hardware company to a firm that combines hardware, software and services. About 7.5 percent of the combined workforce of 320,000 employees will be affected, with about half of the cuts taking place in the United States, HP said. EDS will layoff a greater share of its workforce, which stood at 142,000 employees as of August. Despite the layoffs, HP said it plans to hire about 12,000 engineers in the next three years.
