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** FILE ** A Hewlett Packard Company worker walks into HP headquarters in Palo Alto, Calif., in a file photo from July 19, 2005. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma, File)

SAN FRANCISCO -- Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) swung to an $8.9 billion quarterly loss as personal computer sales shrank again and it swallowed a huge write-down linked to its $13.9 billion purchase of Electronic Data Systems.

The No.1 personal computer maker, which employs more than 300,000 people globally, is undergoing a multiyear restructuring aimed at focusing the sprawling corporation on enterprise services, in the mold of IBM. The plan calls for reducing its employee base by 8 percent.

HP will have gone through about half of its targeted job reductions by the end of the fiscal year, HP's Chief Financial Officer Cathie Lesjak said in an interview. The Palo Alto company cut 4,000 jobs in fiscal third quarter and will likely have shorn 11,500 jobs by end of fiscal 2012, she said.

"HP is definitely showing progress in terms of turning around the company," said Sterne Agee analyst Shaw Wu. "One of the clear signs is a better predictability of earnings."

The company was plagued by poor forecasting during former CEO Lo Apotheker's brief tenure.

CEO Meg Whitman has urged investors to be patient as she works to jumpstart revenue and cut costs.

"We are still in the early stage of the turnaround. There will be

The world's largest PC maker posted a 5 percent slide in net revenue in its fiscal third quarter to $29.7 billion, slightly below the average Wall Street estimate of $30.1 billion as compiled by Thomson Reuters.

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Hewlett-Packard misses analysts' revenue expectations, posts largest quarterly loss of all time