Hewlett-Packard has announced that it will be sending 24,000+ employees to the unemployment lines in the wake of its acquisition of EDS. The company has referred to this as “restructuring.”

HP’s top dog, Mark Hurd, was clearly sympathetic to the fired when he reflected on the overall state of the market and HP:

“That was a tough day on Wall Street… We will be a bigger, stronger company by the time we get EDS integrated… Having the most efficient cost structure is directly related to your ability to scale and grow.”

Mark’s salary last year was just north of $20 million.

Fine print: ComputerWorld