Remember when Hewlett-Packard announced it would fire 58,000 in February just so the company could spend even more billions on stock buybacks to make its shareholders filthier rich?
Alas, since then things have gone south not only for HPQ stock but also for the company’s buybacks activity…
… and so Meg Whitman clearly needed to spend even more on buybacks. But where to get the money? Wait, here’s an idea: lets fire another 30,000!
Sure enough, just out from Bloomberg:
- HPE CFO SEES 2.7BN RESTRUCTURING LEADING TO 25K-30K JOB CUTS
- HP: BY 2018 40% OF ES EMPLOYEES WILL BE IN HIGH-COST LOCATIONS
More details from Bloomberg on the latest restructuring bloodbath out of Hewlett-Packard :
- sees FY16 FCF $2b-$2.2b, with normalized FCF $3.7b.
- Sees FY16 adj. EPS $1.85-$1.95
- Sees FY16 operating cash flow $5b-$5.2b
- Sees cutting 25k-30k jobs as part of restructuring, with GAAP charges $2.7b
- Sees returning at least 50% of FCF to holders through ~$400m in dividends and the remaining in share repurchases
- Says will consider strategic partnerships, investments and M&A “in the right circumstances”
- Earlier, co. said sees HPE cloud rev. ~$3b in FY2015 growing over 20% with similar pace expected over next “several years”
- Said enterprise services business on target for 7%-9% oper. margin target and for reducing $1.4b in costs for 2015; sees similar cost reduction pace continuing next year
And so, dear 30,000 formerly-well paid computer engineers and technicians: welcome to the fast-food recovery. And don’t forget to BTFD with all that spare cash.
Now, where is that 25bps rate hike because the economy is just too strong…
