HOUSTON – Shares of Compaq Computer Corp. fell nearly 3 percent Friday after the world’s largest computer corporation warned its first-quarter results will fall short of Wall Street’s expectations and it will cut 5,000 jobs — about 7 percent of its work force.
The Houston-based company will reveal where the layoffs occurred next month, said Michael Winkler, executive vice president for global business units. The company did say most would come in supply chain and marketing organization changes as Compaq merges its consumer and commercial personal computing units, a restructuring expected to cost between $125 million and $150 million this quarter.
Compaq, which has 67,000 employees worldwide, also reduced its first-quarter earnings outlook to between 12 cents and 14 cents per share. Analysts surveyed by First Call/Thomson Financial were expecting 18 cents per share for the three months ended March 31.
