News 

The axe is the first major change to the company since Mark Hurd joined HP as its new chief executive from NCR in late March following the sacking of the former CEO Carly Fiorina.

Although best known for its imaging products ranging from printers to digital cameras, HP has a huge range of product lines, many of which are in extremely competitive markets. These range from the PC lines where it is up against the ultra competitive Dell Computer, to the enterprise level IT services sector dominated by IBM. It is a measure of the scale of the task that IBM itself sold off its entire PC division this summer as it wasn't profitable enough. In each of these markets HP faces an uphill struggle and Hurd will need to demonstrate to Wall Street that he has the company's finances under control.