HP Plans Job Cuts

Hewlett Packard Co. on Tuesday said in a government filing that workforce reductions planned for the first half of fiscal 2005 will cost about $200 million.

The Palo Alto, Calif., computer maker, which ends its fiscal year on Oct. 31, said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that the reductions would lead to a decrease of about 4 cents a share during the period.

Earlier this month, HP reported that it earned $1.09 billion, or 37 cents a share, on revenue of $21.4 billion in the fourth fiscal quarter. Revenues were up 8 percent from the same period a year ago.

The fourth-quarter performance was considerably better than the previous quarter in which HP's Enterprise Servers and Storage division reported a $208 million operating loss, leading to the firings of its top executives.