With analysts citing an inability to compete with the rise of the smartphone and tablet, HP has confirmed it is to cut 27,000 jobs as part of a restructuring process announced in 2011.

Though it's not clear just which jobs are under threat, HP claims it will look to shed 8 percent of its entire workforce by the end of fiscal 2014.

Up in the cloud

"These initiatives build upon our recent organisational realignment, and will further streamline our operations, improve our processes, and remove complexity from our business," said HP president and CEO Meg Whitman.

"While some of these actions are difficult because they involve the loss of jobs, they are necessary to improve execution and to fund the long term health of the company.

"We are setting HP on a path to extend our global leadership and deliver the greatest value to customers and shareholders."

Broadly speaking, HP is keen to move away from hardware and is planning to bet its future on investing in cloud technology, following the firm's $10 billion cash acquisition of enterprise software company Autonomy in August 2011.

Autonomy founder Mike Lynch, however, has confirmed he is to leave HP, with the Financial Times claiming up to a quarter of staff at the British firm have also left, describing working for their new owners as akin to "being water-boarded" daily.

Standard practice

"Autonomy is a great business with tremendous potential, but at this stage in its growth cycle requires different leadership to allow it to fulfil its full promise," an HP spokesman told the paper.

"It's very common and very natural for entrepreneurs to move on following an acquisition, particularly when the day-to-day operations of the business become a bigger factor."

Specifically focusing on smartphones, it sound seems unlikely HP will utilise webOS – itself now an open platform – in any future devices, though the firm has recently confirmed it will developer tablets running Microsoft's Windows 8.

Both announcements come after HP reported a 31 percent fall in profits in Q2 2012 to $1.6 billion, with revenue also falling by 3 percent to $30.7 billion.

HP estimates the job cuts will save the company around $3 billion over the course of the four year period.

[source: HP]