Michael Dell, the founder of the company, has overseen a shake-up of its executive ranks since returning to lead Dell in January. The Texas-based company continues to struggle to regain market share against Hewlett-Packard (HP), which ousted it from the top spot in worldwide computer shipments last year. HP kept its lead over Dell in the first quarter, with 4 percent more shipments.

Dell’s first-quarter earnings of $759 million, or 34 cents per share, on sales of $13.95 billion beat analysts’ predictions of 26 cents per share, but were down slightly from 33 cents per share from the same period last year. In its earnings release, Dell said it was reviewing costs across the board and that the layoffs would be implemented in different geographical regions and customer segments to “reflect business considerations as well as local legal requirements.”

Earlier in May, Dell also broke with its long-standing business model of direct-to-customer sales by announcing it would begin to sell computers through retail giant Wal-Mart, beginning June 10.

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