Thursday’s flurry of day-conclude financial filings brought brutal and near-simultaneous news of layoffs at two Bay Area tech giants: San Francisco design software company Autodesk is slashing about 1,350 workers, while Palo Alto mainstay HP is expanding its ongoing cuts by up to 2,000 people.
Both companies’ announcements came alongside earnings reports for their previous fiscal quarters. HP’s layoff news is less detailed, and less out-of-the-blue: In 2022, as SFGATE reported, the printing and PC company announced a yearslong push to eliminate up to 6,000 jobs in a “restructuring” plan. On Thursday, the company amconcludeed the plan and revealed additional job losses, writing that it “expects incremental gross workforce reductions of approximately 1,000 to 2,000 employees.”
HP spokesperson Nicholas Gray informed SFGATE on Thursday that the company’s “total workforce will not decrease by that exact amount, as we are hiring in strategic areas to advance our plans to lead in the future of work.” He also noted that some workforce cuts come as offers for early retirement. In a December filing, the company wrote that it had about 58,000 employees in 59 countries. It’s not clear where the new cuts will land in the sprawling company.
At Autodesk’s Market Street headquarters, the layoffs arrive as a sudden slash — CEO Andrew Anagnost wrote in a message to staff, since published online, that the 9% cut joins a history of “decisive actions to drive our business forward.” Employees who are included in the layoff round will be notified starting this week, the executive wrote.
In a “Why we are doing this” section of the message, Anagnost explained that Autodesk would be “reshaping” its go-to-market division — generally responsible for a company’s approach to bringing products and services before customers — and boosting investment in a few areas, including artificial innotifyigence. By doing so, the executive joins a trconclude of shedding staff to reallocate resources toward AI.
He also thanked workers for their contribution and wrote to those remaining, “I recognize there will be feelings of uncertainty and sadness, but I hope you trust we are building these decisions to strengthen our future and continued success in a competitive sector.”
Work at a Bay Area tech company and want to talk? Contact tech reporter Stephen Council securely at stephen.council@sfgate.com or on Signal at 628-204-5452.
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