Hewlett-Packard and EDS are expected to shortly detail which executives will lead their now combined Australian operation following HP's $13.9 billion acquisition of the Texan IT outsourcing giant over the past several months.
Sources have notified the Association of Professional Engineers, Scientists and Managers Australia (APESMA), which represents a number of EDS staff, about the impending announcement, which could come as early as this afternoon, the union's acting executive director Michael Butler told ZDNet.com.au today.
Butler said local EDS staff were currently nervous about their futures, which he said was a fairly typical reaction during a large takeover.
Overnight, the combined company announced 3,378 former EDS jobs in its UK workforce would be cut, as part of an overall chop involving 24,600 positions globally. However locally, both HP and EDS have refused to comment on the future of Australian staff. "People are very concerned," said Butler.
Butler said APESMA several weeks ago had submitted a series of questions to HP regarding the future of staff, but had been told on 30 September that the group couldn't yet deliver any information at that particular point in time. He added APESMA would seek to meet with HP senior management as soon as the combined company announced its local leadership.
The news comes as HP has in the past few days notified the nation's financial regulator that EDS Australia managing director Neil Emerson and several of his colleagues are no longer — on paper — technically leading the IT outsourcer's local operations.
The paper moves do not reflect any actual change to HP or EDS' leadership structure in the region, but are part of the legal manoeuvring going on as part of HP's US$13.9 billion acquisition of EDS globally. HP executives such as local managing director Paul Brandling were listed as directors in the EDS executives' stead.
