And then there is valley icon Hewlett-Packard.

HP is expected to announce a large layoff at its quarterly investors briefing on Wednesday. As many as 30,000 employees may be cut. That's almost as many employees as Apple has added in the last two years.

HP hasn't made official any plan to chop its approximately 350,000 employee global workforce. It's not commenting on the reported layoffs, neither confirming nor denying. But the stage is set for action.

In its most recent quarter, of $30 billion was down 7% from the prior-year period. Revenue from HP's Personal Systems Group, which sells PCs and workstations, declined 15% in that same period.

When Apple was selling iPads by the boatloads, HP was having a of the Touchpad, its own tablet.