HEWLETT PACKARD FORECASTS 8 BILLION DOLLAR CHARGE AGAINST EARNINGS

Date Published: 09-Aug-2012

Global technology firm Hewlett Packard, which has its European Software Centre in Ballybrit, is to take a massive charge of around 8 billion dollars against its earnings in the third quarter of its fiscal year.

The firm says the impairment review stems from the recent trading value of HP’s stocks, coupled with market conditions and business trends within the Services segment.

Hewlett Packard has also reported an increase to a planned pre-tax charge it expects to take in the third quarter from 1 billion to between 1.5 and 1.7 billion dollars in relation to its restructuring plan.

It follows a higher than anticipated acceptance rate under its early retirement program and a faster than expected implementation of the workforce reduction program.

Both initiatives were introduced as part of the company’s global restructuring program which was announced in May.

The firm employs around 4 thousand staff in Ireland with up to 600 of these based in Ballybrit.

A localised breakdown of the numbers taking up early retirement in the Galway division is unavailable but the firm has confirmed that workforce reductions will impact “just about every business and region” to some extent.

Up to 27 thousand employees worldwide are expected to exit the HP workforce by the end of fiscal year 2014 as part of the restructuring plan.