Wed, Jul 30, 2008 18:10 EDT

HP and EDS: Let the Layoffs Begin? (updates in the comments)

Topic: Partner/Vendor Management

Current Rating: Comments: 68

As HP inches closer to sealing its deal to acquire EDS, rumor has it that executives at EDS may be putting the finishing touches on severance packages for a significant number of its staff.

An EDS employee told CIO.com that, within the walls of the Dallas-based IT services provider, the rumor is that the company plans to lay off 20 percent of its Americas-based workforce tomorrow. EDS's director of corporate public relations adamantly denies any immediate workforce reduction, saying that any information about plans to pink-slip that many employees tomorrow is "completely factually inaccurate." *

It's been just over two months since HP announced its plans to purchase EDS for more than $13 billion. In the last few days, the European Commission approved the union, and HP and EDS announced that they'd settled shareholder litigation related to their potential merger. The waiting period under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976 relating to the deal expired without a request for further information by the U.S. Department of Justice or Federal Trade Commission last month. And EDS stockholders are scheduled to vote on the transaction tomorrow.

EDS employees may not be the only ones distressed by the seeming certainty of the HP-EDS hook-up. Although most analysts and consultants still contend that a combined HP-EDS will be beneficial for most customers, there is one big user who’s taking the news harder than the rest. GM CIO Ralph Szygenda is smarting, one IT consultant who recently spent some time with Szygenda tells me. The long-time auto industry CIO who marketed his multi-sourced IT services environment as the "third wave of outsourcing" will find his IT services provider significantly less diversified once the marriage of HP and EDS is official. The Szygenda strategy, having a multitude of outsourcers cooperating -- and competing -- to deliver IT services at a lower cost, is will be set back several years due to the HP-EDS deal, says the consultant.

* This post was updated to reflect the additional comments from EDS.

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Thu, Jul 31, 2008 15:06 EDT

Colorado layoffs

Posted by: Anonymous
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A friend of mine in the Denver area just told me that she had been laid off this morning from the EDS Louisville, CO facility. She's been with EDS since late 1991.

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Thu, Jul 31, 2008 15:43 EDT

American Based work force

Posted by: Anonymous
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Amazing...... It doesn't matter how hard you work, when they decide to cut, they cut. Apparently living in America has become a liability to your job.

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Thu, Jul 31, 2008 16:07 EDT

Layoffs in Brazil

Posted by: Anonymous
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There were layoffs in Brazil, too, so this is affecting the BestShore people, too. Losing too many people. Pretty soon, we won't be able to support our clients.

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Sat, Aug 9, 2008 22:58 EDT

Taste of Your own Medicine

Posted by: Anonymous
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Well now the offshore folks know how it feels to be laid off from your job. The offshore countries have been stealing American jobs for years. Now they are starting to lose their jobs too. I'd like to say I feel sorry for you but I don't. Now you know how it feels like to be laid off due to some corporate directive.

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Fri, Oct 10, 2008 16:53 EDT

Taste of Your own Medicent

Posted by: Anonymous
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Excellent response. What goes around comes around. I just hope they lay off more workers from foreign countries. I hate the term "Best Shore"....should be called "Cheap Shore". Lower wages, lower quality of workmanship, lower standards, lower level of loyalty, and lower respectability in the industry. All I can say is "You get what you pay for" and "You'll always pay for what you get". EDS-HP should outsource it's CEOs, CFOs, and Board of Directors to India or Argentina. I figure that would save the Company about 350 million a year

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