Computer and peripheral manufacturer Hewlett-Packard (HP) is set to lose 24,600 members of staff over the next three years due to its integration with EDS, it has emerged.

Representing eight per cent of its current IT support workforce, most of the employees that are to be made redundant are from the firm HP took over, with cuts predominantly affecting staff in the United States.

It was noted by HP that it expected to save over $1.8 billion (GBP1 billion) on the restructuring, with a $1.7 billion charge being taken by the company for the cost of the action.

The addition of new staff will halve the losses over time, the company added, with vnunet.com stating that it expected the relocation of staff - which was unannounced by HP - to be somewhere in the Far East.

EDS was founded in 1962, evolving from a $1,000 investment into a $22 billion technology services group by the time it was bought out by HP.

More than half of small businesses (53%) believe that the most important benefit of outsourcing is guaranteed response times for IT support, London based Connect conducted the research in 2007.