HP prepares to axe 9000 jobs

Billion dollar bail-out

Hewlett-Packard said it has earmarked a billion dollars (£686 million) to spend on getting rid of 9,000 jobs world-wide over the next three years.

HP's cunning plan is to fully automate its commercial data centres, employing robots that don't have mouths to feed rather than pesky people who do.

The outfit said its "next-generation services" would benefits customers and the workers can obviously go take a running jump as far as it is concerned. 

"As a result of productivity gains and automation, HP expects to eliminate roughly 9,000 positions over a multi-year period to reinvest for further growth and to increase shareholder value," the firm said in a statement which sounded like it was written by an automaton.

The droid said it expects to see annual net savings "after reinvestment in a range between $500  million and $700 million".

Last year the company axed some 6,700 jobs. Shareholders are rubbing their hands in delight.