Two months after Hewlett-Packard announced its acquisition of Palm, it is reportedly laying off some of the employees that came with the deal — just in time for the holiday weekend. It’s unclear how many have lost their jobs — though varying estimates put the number in the double digits, according to AllThingsD.

Palm released the following statement on the subject: “Part of the integration strategy is consolidation of functions and operations, as appropriate. There always is turnover in organizations. Palm employees overall are enthusiastic about having the financial stability and global scale necessary to complete their vision.”

One former Palm staffer told Electronista that Hewlett-Packard passed out “welcome to HP” letters to employees that it planned on retaining, while it delayed letting the rest go. The same post points out that HP has posted at least 33 new job openings, with 100 predicted to open up over the next year.

This isn’t the first Palm departure since April. Its vice president of public relations, Lynn Fox, who used to work at Apple, just left the company, as did vice president of human interface and user experience Matias Duarte, and user interface design architect Rich Dellinger.

The purchase, which closed this week, has signaled a few other changes as well. Apparently, HP might also move away from Microsoft’s Windows 7 Home Premium operating system, swapping it out in favor of Palm’s webOS on its forthcoming HP Slate, a tablet device poised to rival Apple’s iPad that has now been confirmed.

Yesterday, HP released a statement that Palm will now be in charge of developing software for many hardware products, including future smartphones and tablets. This makes a lot of sense, considering that the webOS was the primary driver behind the acquisition. The software is core to HP’s mission to establish a presence in the smartphone and connected device market.