Boeblingen, Germany - Computer giant Hewlett-Packard (HP) plans to cut 1,400 jobs in Germany over the next two years, a company spokesman said Monday in Boeblingen.

The announcement followed HP's purchase of IT-service provider Electronic Data Systems (EDS). About 1150 former EDS and another 250 HP employees were to lose their jobs over the next two years, the spokesman said.

Hewlett-Packard currently has a staff of 8,500 in Germany, while EDS employs another 4,200.

The world's leading producer of personal computers, HP plans to reduce its staff levels world-wide by 24,600 over the next three years, in total 7.5 per cent of the combined strength of both companies. The cuts amount to savings of about 1.8 billion dollars (1.3 billion euros), according to media estimates.

Almost half of the cuts were planned in the United States, the company said.

Headquartered in Palo Alto, California, HP had taken over EDS in August for about 13 billion dollars. The purchase resulted in HP's move to become the world's second-largest service provider after IBM.

EDS, based in Texas, is regarded as one of the leading IT-service providers world-wide.

HP and EDS informed their employees in Germany on Monday in an internal letter about the planned job cuts.