This morning’s DominionPost reported that between "400 and 1500" Telecom jobs are to disappear to offshore contractors, with any losses “expected to be concentrated in Telecom's in-house IT business Gen-i”.

READ ALSO: Telecom's Passage to India

On the back of its takeover by HP, EDS is rolling out a new mid-market suite aimed at companies in the sub-$10 million-a-year bracket for IT services contracts, and beefs up its vendor finance options.

Briefing press and analysts in Auckland this morning, EDS Australia and New Zealand managing director David Caspari said his company had previously focussed on signing multi-year deals with customers in the $100 million bracket, such as the major banks, and Fonterra.

In the US, HP and EDS staff took an immediate 5-20% haircut. But in Australia and New Zealand, employees are being asked to voluntary sign on to the salary reduction.

HP, which finalised its takeover of services giant EDS late last year, announced a global plan to reduce salaries on February 20. The cuts were pitched as a manoeuvre to avoid mass layoffs across both companies.

Amid speculation that up to 250 local staff could lose their jobs as HP merges with IT services giant EDS, rival IBM is eyeing its opportunities.

"Any merger or acquisition is disruptive," says IBM Australia-New Zealand CFO Sara Watts told NBR during October. "A number of HP and EDS clients are up for renewal, and we're going to go after them."

Two IT companies with a substantial New Zealand presence, Hewlett-Packard and EDS, are close to a merger, reports from the US say.
 
The reports say HP is to acquire EDS for between $US12 billion and $13 billion. Confirmation of the deal is said to be imminent.
 
EDS, which provides consulting and technology outsourcing services, has a market value of about $US9.5 billion.
 
A deal would bolster HP's competitive position versus rival IBM as a provider of services such as tech consulting and customer support.