5 July 2002 Hardware giant Hewlett-Packard (HP) is to cut 5,900 jobs in Europe – 1,580 falling in the UK – as part of a cost-cutting programme following its acquisition of Compaq Computer.

HP CEO Carly Fiorina has said that reducing HP’s global workforce by 15,000 will help it achieve annual cost savings of $3 billion (€3.1bn) by the end of its 2003 financial year.

So far, HP has revealed few details of where or when most of the job cuts will occur, but former Compaq PC assembly factories will be hard hit. Compaq’s factory in Renfrewshire, Scotland has already announced the loss of 650 jobs. This comes on top of the 700 lost at the same factory in spring 2001.

Since finalising the acquisition of Compaq in April, HP now has about 46,000 staff in its Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region. Globally, HP employs approximately 150,000 people. The cuts in the global workforce will be made before the end of 2003, although two-thirds will be axed by the close of this year.