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Technology Stocks : Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Kirk © who wrote (150)	5/8/2002 8:09:09 AM
From: Lynn	Respond to of 4345

HP Asia to decide on staff cuts by end July By Jennifer Tan SINGAPORE, May 8 (Reuters) - Hewlett-Packard Co Asia Pacific, which celebrated the close of its acquisition of rival Compaq Computer Corp across some Asian cities on Wednesday, said it would finalise its job cuts in the region by the end of July. The U.S. computer and printer maker completed its US$18.7 billion acquisition of Compaq -- the largest in the history of the technology industry -- last week after one of the corporate world's most bitter proxy battles. HP, which launched the merged entity on Tuesday in Palo Alto, California, said it would axe most of the 15,000 jobs it planned to eliminate in nine months and could save more than the $2.5 billion promised in cost-cutting. "We're still looking at the redundancies to be made and will reach a decision by the end of our third quarter, which is the May to July period," Paul Chan, HP's recently appointed Asia Pacific managing director, told a news conference in Singapore. "We will have a very clear picture by then." The merged HP, which now trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the new symbol HPQ, has about 150,000 staff worldwide, with 20,000 in Asia outside Japan. Chan, who was Compaq's Asia Pacific managing director, said some of business groups might see fewer layoffs than others. "I would think the Imaging and Printing Group would have the opportunity to increase its presence in the market, while the Enterprise Systems Group and the Personal Systems Group -- these are two large groups of people coming together," he said. SYNERGIES AND SPEED The staff cuts would be phased over an 18-month period in some cases, said Adrian Koch, senior vice president of the Personal Systems Group. "That would allow us to look for redeployment opportunities and manage some planned decreases through normal attrition," he said. But the merger is not purely a retrenchment game, said Michael Hoffmann, senior vice president of the Imaging and Printing Group. "We're looking at the synergy potential of the two companies, and people redundancies is only one aspect. There are other aspects from consolidation of systems and processes, and we are going after those synergies with equal passion," he said. Speed is of the essence, Chan acknowledged. "We need to be absolutely done with bringing the two companies together when the economy comes back," he said. CONSOLIDATING SUPPLIERS HP will also review and consolidate its offices and manufacturing plants as well as streamline its suppliers, Chan said. But he added that it had not spoken to any supplier yet. Venture Manufacturing Ltd (SES:VENM.SI - news), Singapore's largest electronics contract maker, is a key HP supplier, deriving about 25 percent of its revenues from the American firm. Plastic component makers Chosen Holdings Ltd (SES:CHOS.SI - news) and Avaplas Ltd (SES:AVPA.SI - news), which supply HP printer parts and printer cartridge components, derive between 50 and 70 percent of their sales from HP. In a bid to consolidate its merged product range over the next three to 12 months, HP said it would retain commercial desktops and laptops under the Compaq brand but phase out those under the HP brand. It would also drop its Jornada handheld computer in favour of Compaq's iPAQ, eventually to be renamed HP iPAQ, while its consumer range of personal computers would retain their individual HP and Compaq brandings. biz.yahoo.com