HP slashes 275 engineering jobs

Tech giant, HP has cut 275 jobs in its WebOS group, as part of its strategy to turn the operating system over to the open source community, PC World reports.

HP revealed last year it would stop making devices that use the operating system, which was developed by Palm for phones and tablets, and later decided to release the software under the Apache Licence 2.0.

As WebOS continues the transition to open source software, HP says it no longer needs many of the engineering-related positions that it required before.

According to HP, the company is working to redeploy employees affected by these changes to other roles at the company, Bloomberg Businessweek states.

While HP no longer makes TouchPad tablets and Palm Pre phones, which had used WebOS, the company says it might introduce a new device running the software in 2013.

HP stated in a San Francisco Chronicle report: “As WebOS continues the transition from making mobile devices to open source software, it no longer needs many of the engineering and other related positions that it required before.

“This creates a smaller and more nimble team that is well equipped to deliver an open source WebOS and sustain HP's commitment to the software over the long term.”