Cisco Systems will be cutting as many as 10,000 jobs, or 14 percent of its workforce, by the end of August to "revive profit growth."
Three thousand have already accepted early-retirement buyouts from Cisco and another 7,000 workers could be fired, Bloomberg reported. The company said in May that eliminating jobs could bring $1 billion in savings.
The voluntary retirement packages included one year’s pay and medical benefits, and were offered to about 5,800 employees, two people said.
“The revenue trajectory hasn’t been where it should be,” Brian Marshall, an analyst at Gleacher & Co., who has a “neutral” rating on the stock . . . said in an interview. “The company is not staffed on an appropriate level. They simply have too many employees.”
Cisco declined to discuss job cuts, saying that it would release details on its next earnings call in early August.
Cisco has been under a lot of competition from the likes of Juniper Networks and Hewlett-Packard, and its current chief executive has been criticized as having "lost his mind," according to the Business Insider.
It's true that layoffs are a quick-fix that can benefit shareholders, although it never quite seems like the best idea in the long run. However, it looks like layoffs at the San Jose-based Cisco are definitely looming. So anyone working there should start polishing that resume now.
