14 DAY TRIAL // Back in August, HP announced that they would discontinue any webOS hardware operations, a move that has already determined the company to send home some of the webOS developers that were no longer needed.
Today, the company announced that it would send home a number of people from the webOS team. Apparently, over 500 of them will receive the pink slip, namely 525, to be more precise.
Moreover, the company revealed that it would begin the layoffs as soon as this week, and that they would be ended before October 31st.
“As communicated on August 18, HP will discontinue the development of webOs devices within the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2011, which ends Oct 31 2011,” an HP spokesperson told AllThingsD.
“As part of this decision, the webOS GBU is undergoing a reduction in workforce. Today’s actions are part of this initiative.
“During this time, we stand by our commitment to our webOS customers and will work to ensure that support and service for customers are not adversely affected.”
Although they confirmed the beginning of the layoffs, HP did not offer specific info on the actual number of people that they were letting go.
When announcing plans to kill off any webOS smartphones and the TouchPad, HP also said that they are looking into finding new ways to leverage the webOS platform, and they have reiterated that in today's announcement.
“HP is exploring ways to leverage webOS software,” the company's official reportedly stated, without offering further details on this.
Some suggest that HP might be considering the possibility to license the webOS platform to third-parties, or that they might be even thinking about selling the platform altogether.
Other rumors suggested that the company might be planning the splitting of webOS software devs from the hardware team, and that it will keep the former, yet nothing has been confirmed officially on the matter for the time being.