July 31st, 2008
EDS shareholders approve HP deal; EDS shoots down layoff rumors
Updated throughout: EDS said Thursday that shareholders have approved the HP acquisition of the IT services company. Internally, rumors about impending layoffs at EDS are surfacing, but a company spokesman called the rumors “completely factually incorrect.”
According to a statement, 98.8 percent of EDS common stock was voted for the HP deal–that equates to 72.4 percent of the outstanding shares.
The HP purchase of EDS has been cleared by the European Commission and U.S. regulators. Pending clearance from other jurisdictions HP’s purchase of EDS should close in the third quarter. Meanwhile, EDS and HP have settled five shareholder lawsuits following the merger announcement.
Also see: HP’s Hurd: U.S. demand ’spotty’; Data center, app consolidation continues
While all of this news is good from the corporate perspective, EDS employees have been skittish. Rumors on Wednesday began percolating among EDS technology managers that the company is planning on laying off 20 percent of its workforce across all hubs in the Americas. As noted previously EDS said the rumors are incorrect. On Wednesday, EDS said wouldn’t comment on the rumors, but moved to squash them Thursday.
For now you can chalk this layoff chatter up to jitters over the impending HP merger.
Larry Dignan is Editor in Chief of ZDNet and Editorial Director of ZDNet sister site TechRepublic. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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