HP Inc said it will cut several thousand jobs over the next three years after PC sales fell sharply and are expected to continue falling through 2023. The company has 61,000 employees and wants to cut between 4,000 and 6,000 people.

According to IDC, HP is the second largest PC manufacturer in the world after Lenovo. It shipped 12.7 million PCs last quarter, down 28 percent from the third quarter of 2021. From July to September, the global PC market fell by 15%.

And Dell announced falling sales and a gloomy forecast for the PC market in 2023.

During the pandemic, PC sales increased significantly, especially since many people needed a computer for work at home, and many students bought laptops for distance learning. In some countries, the government partially subsidized the purchase of laptops, and many companies bought PCs for their employees, which lifted the overall market to unexpectedly high levels in the second half of 2020 and early 2021.

After things normalized, PC sales plummeted from their peak times by record percentages. October data showed the largest percentage decline in the PC market in 20 years.

HP announced an 11% drop in quarterly revenue to $14.8 billion.

HP estimates the restructuring will cost $1 billion but could result in annual savings of $1.4 billion.

The company’s market capitalization is $29 billion. In the spring of 2010, the capitalization of HP reached 125 billion dollars. The lowest value in the last 20 years was reached at the beginning of 2016: the capitalization is below 18 billion dollars.

Sources: CNN, CNBC, WSJ

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