HP has revealed it is to lay off a further 270 employees currently working within its webOS division as the platform continues its transitions into an open source OS.

Confirmed in a statement to The Verge, HP said the majority of jobs lost would be in engineering, with the company's decision to drop webOS hardware making the positions surplus to requirements.

Latest casualties

"As webOS continues the transition from making mobile devices to open source software, it no longer needs many of the engineering and other related positions that it required before," reads the statement.

"This creates a smaller and more nimble team that is well-equipped to deliver an open source webOS and sustain HP’s commitment to the software over the long term."

The news follows the loss of 500 jobs announced back in September and the departure of former Palm CEO Jon Rubinstein at the start of 2012.

The platform itself is in the final stages of going open source, with HP having detailed its governance model earlier in February.

HP claims it is "working to redeploy employees affected by these changes to other roles at the company."

[source: The Verge]