Last night's analyst briefing about the acquisition of EDS gave HP a chance to raise a sweat from the largest number of its workers in the company's history. Hewlett-Packard will lay off almost 25,000 employees as a result of the merger with EDS, the services giant which the company bought this year for more than $13 billion.

That's a massive number of resumes about to float into the world. Compare Apple's total workforce, including retail, at 22,000. Or Google's staff at 20,000. The number of layoffs exceeded analyst expectations. HP shares rose 5 percent on the news, even though the company said it will take a $1.7 billion charge for Q4 to meet expenses for the acquisition.

While your vendor was quick to point out that about half of those layoffs would be replaced with new jobs over the next three years, the numbers set records no matter how they are parceled out. The EDS deal added 80 percent more staff to the HP payrolls, jobs which analysts have said are too heavily based in the US.

Those market analysts reacted favorably to news that about 8 percent of the new HP combined workforce would be looking for work soon. Head count today stands at more than 320,000. HP used the word "restructuring" to define the strategy, a phrase which has already meant layoffs this year in the once-booming Imaging and Printing group.