Computer company Hewlett-Packard plans to cut 27,000 jobs worldwide by the end of 2014.
The reductions will affect about 8% of HP's nearly 350,000 employees by the time the overhaul is completed.
HP hopes to avoid as many layoffs as possible by offering early retirement packages.
Hewlett-Packard Ireland has declined to comment on whether Irish employees would be affected by the job losses.
The company, which is based in Palo Alto, California, expects to save as much as $3.5 billion annually from the job cuts and other cost-cutting measures.
HP CEO Meg Whitman plans to funnel most of the savings into developing more products and services that could help the company adapt to technological shifts.
Those changes are driving demand for more mobile computing and for software that is provided over high-speed internet connections, rather than installed on individual computers.
News of the cutbacks overshadowed the release of HP's latest quarterly results.
The company earned $1.6bn during the three months ending in April, its fiscal second quarter. That represented a 31% decline from $2.3bn at the same time last year.
