In May, Hewlett Packard (HP) announced it will lay-off 27,000

employees across the globe. This included 9,000 job cuts in

the USA, while CEO Meg Whitman assured that this move

will not affect employees in India.

In February, Nokia stated that it planned to fire 2,300, 1,000 and 700 jobs in

Hungary, Finland and Mexico, respectively, as it shifted all manufacturing

operations to Asia. Then in June, Nokia declared plans to let go of 10,000 of its

employees by the end of 2013 as part of the cost cutting initiative. jj

Sony in April said it will shed 10,000 employees as part of its 'One Sony'

initiative. This means that the company will lose 6% of its global staff in a

bid to once again become profitable.

As part of its restructuring programme, BlackBerry maker Research in Motion

(RIM) said in January it will slash 5,000 jobs. In August, reports quoting insiders

came that the company will fire another 3,000 staffers.

The embattled Japanese manufacturer Sharp in August announced it would cut

5,000 jobs as part of its cost cutting efforts. Later, sources said that the company

will sell two plants and, thus, slash 3,000 jobs, while news reports said Sharp may

eventually shed 10,000 jobs.

Nokia Siemens' restructuring programme includes 2,900 job cuts in Germany in

March, while 630 jobs were slashed in Finland. The company shed 3,500 jobs

in Latin America as it exited a service and maintenance deal with Brazil's Oi.

Alcatel-Lucent decided to let go off 5,000 employees in order to lower its spending

and produce more profit. All divisions except research and development will be

affected by this move, which will be completed by 2013-end.

Under Google, Motorola Mobility will cut 4,000 jobs across the globe. This move,

announced in August, translates into 20% employees of the company being laid off

as part of the restructuring process. The company will also shut down

approximately 30 offices across the world and 'shrink operations' in India.

In July, Cisco announced that it will lay off 1,300 people from its workforce, which

amounts to 2% of its total staff. The technology giant was compelled to take this

step as its sales reduced under intense competition and limping economic

conditions.

In February, Alliance@IBM, an organisation by IBM employees, released data that

IBM laid-off 1,202 employees in various business units throughout the world. It

reported the data based on the severance documents it received from the staffers

who were let go by the company.