CNBC is reporting that HP (HPQ) is merging it PC and Printer divisions. HP is struggling to find its place in the “Post PC Era”, where users are moving to tablets like Apple’s iPad (AAPL) and as a result printing less. HP is getting hit on both of its big division PCs and Printers. The merger of the divisions it expected to unleash a major layoff, the likes of which have not been seen in Silicon Valley since the dot com bust.

CNBC is reporting that HP (HPQ) is merging its PC and Printer units. HP is struggling to find its place in the “Post PC Era”, where users are moving to tablets like Apple’s iPad (AAPL), and as a result they are printing less. PC and Printers are big business for HP, and its is getting hit big on both as a result of tablets. The merger of the divisions it expected to unleash a major layoff, the likes of which have not been seen in Silicon Valley since the dot com bust.

HP is laying off 50% of the workers from its Tablet WebOS team.

It makes sense now that WebOS is becoming an open source project, and HP is no longer building hardware based on it.

The team was around 600 at the beginning of the year, so this means about 300 people from the team are gone.

HP told it did this so it could continue to afford supporting WebOS as an open source project.

Most of the affected positions are in engineering, but related positions like quality assurance and business development were also affected. All laid off employees will be able to apply for other jobs at HP.

Previously, mediocrity like HP’s Tablet project would have passed as innovation but with the efficiency and market readiness of Apple projects is pushing companies like to cut the fat much sooner.

Data includes desk-based PCs, mobile PCs, including mini-notebooks but not media tablets such as the iPad.

You have probably been hearing that the PC era is over. Now there is evidence that it really is over. The latest Gartner and IDC “PC” shipments reports show that PC growth declined by 5.9% in Q4 2011 and Apple growth increased 20.7% over the same period.

Total 4Q11: 15,854,964
Total 4Q10: 17,342,605
4Q11-4Q10 Growth: -8.5

The result is a decline of 8.5%, which is far worst that the originally reported decline of 5.9% for PC growth. That 2.6% delta is not insignificant, it’s over 40% worse than what was reported.