SAN FRANCISCO — Hewlett-Packard is cutting 27,000 jobs in an effort to recover from management missteps that hobbled the Silicon Valley pioneer as its rivals raced ahead with more innovative products and services.

The streamlining announced Wednesday represents HP’s largest payroll purge in its 73-year history. About 8 percent of HP’s nearly 350,000 employees will be gone by the time the overhaul is completed in October 2014.

The cuts come eight months after HP hired Meg Whitman as CEO to turn the company around.

The company expects to save $3 billion to $3.5 billion annually from the job cuts and other austerity measures.

HP said it will avoid as many layoffs as possible by offering early retirement packages.

And word of the cut had leaked out in media reports late last week, so the news didn’t come as a surprise.

Nevertheless, the sobering details overshadowed the release of HP’s latest quarterly results. Although HP’s earnings and revenue declined from a year ago, the numbers were better than analysts had projected.

HP delivered another pleasant surprise by offering a forecast that raised hopes it might be poised to bounce back.

Investors were pleased, although it wasn’t clear whether their glee had more to do with the cost-cutting or the company’s performance during its fiscal second quarter, which ended in April.

HP shares surged $1.97, or more than 9 percent, to $23.05 in Wednesday’s extended trading.