While some companies thrive, others in the tech industry struggle, and even pillars like HP and Kodak aren't immune to financial difficulties.
Like Intel, whose financial forecasts have been reduced as the company continues to play catch-up in the newly mobile-focused industry, Hewlett-Packard and Kodak have failed to adapt to ever-changing circumstances.
As a result, both companies are slashing jobs and undergoing massive restructuring.
HP's cutting even more jobs than was previously announced, and Kodak is trying its best to climb out of bankruptcy.
HP is losing health
In May, PC maker HP announced that it would place 27,000 jobs on the chopping block by 2014, and now that number has been increased to 29,000 lost jobs.
In a restructuring dubbed "the 2012 plan," HP plans to free up an extra $3 billion - $3.5 billion to dump into R&D and stave off the impending dominance of its main competitor, Lenovo.
As of the end of July, the Palo Alto, Calif. company axed 3,800 jobs, with the enterprise services unit taking the brunt of the damage.
HP already dumped its tablet and mobile businesses in August 2011, killing off the TouchPad and its WebOS operating system.
Additionally, speculation indicates that the same could eventually happen to HP's PC-making division, despite its current standing as the biggest in the world.
'We recognize that we must significantly and expeditiously reduce our current cost structure....' -- Kodak Chairman and CEO Antonio Perez
Kodak's re-focusing
Kodak's circumstances are even more dire, with the century-plus-old camera company struggling to crawl from the abyss of Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
Sources report that Kodak cut 2,700 employees worldwide since the start of 2012, with 1,000 more cuts to come before the end of the year.
Kodak hopes to save $330 million annually with these cuts, and an interim CFO from restructuring advisory firm Alixpartners plans to reorganize the Rochester, N.Y. company into Digital Printing and Enterprise, Graphics, and Entertainment and Commercial Films divisions to better reflect current demands.
"We recognize that we must significantly and expeditiously reduce our current cost structure, which is designed for a much larger, more diversified set of businesses," Chairman and CEO Antonio Perez reportedly said in a statement.
It will be interesting to observe as HP and Kodak attempt to turn things around before it's too late.
Via ZDNET, Washington Post
