H-P prepares to eliminate up to 30,000 jobs

That's 10 percent to 15 percent of the workforce and is part of a company-wide restructuring being implemented by CEO Meg Whitman. The exact number of cuts is still being worked out, reports All Things Digital, and they're expected to be made over a year or more. From ATD:

Additionally, sources say, Whitman will, during a conference call with analysts, portray the cuts as necessary -- not to bolster HP's earnings and satisfy shareholders, but rather as a means to make needed investments. On this point, Whitman will be borrowing a bit from the playbook of her short-lived predecessor, former HP CEO Léo Apotheker. Whitman will argue that many of the cuts made at HP during the five years that Mark Hurd was at its helm were made without corresponding investments in new and growing initiatives. This "cut and reinvest" theme will apply across the company, sources tell me. The process has been an intense one among HP's senior executive ranks and has, as one source put it, "consumed the company."