HP's CEO Whitman on big layoffs

4:30 AM layoffs, Whitman No Comments

Meg Whitman, Hewlett-Packard president & CEO, discusses her company's restructuring plans.

Meg Whitman, Hewlett-Packard’s president and CEO, appeared on CNBC Thursday to discuss her company’s restructuring plans and her plans to turnaround the company amid growing competition.

Hewlett-Packard said Wednesday it plans to lay off roughly 27,000 employees or about 8 percent of its workforce over the next couple of years to jump-start growth and save up to $3.5 billion annually.

The company said the layoffs would be made mainly through early retirement and would generate annual savings of $3 billion to $3.5 billion as it exits fiscal year 2014, when the layoffs are expected to the completed.

The world's No. 1 personal computer maker, which employs more than 300,000 people globally, also said on Wednesday that it had a 31 percent decline in second-quarter profit and a 3 percent decline in revenue, compared with a year ago.

The results, however, were better than Wall Street expectations.

Shares of Hewlett-Packard were higher Thursday.

Reuters contributed to this report.