Cutting costs? Cisco Systems to lay off about 14,000 employees

BENGALURU: Cisco Systems Inc is laying off about 14,000 employees, representing nearly 20% of the network equipment maker’s global workforce, technology news site

BENGALURU: Cisco Systems Inc is laying off about 14,000 employees, representing nearly 20% of the network equipment maker’s global workforce, technology news site CRN reported, citing sources close to the company.

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California-based Cisco is expected to announce the cuts within few weeks, the report said, as the company transition from its hardware roots into a software-centric organisation.

Cisco currently has more than 70,000 employees wordwide.

On whether the job cuts will affect India, a Cisco India spokesperson said: “We do not comment on rumour or speculation.”

Apart from Cisco, the other tech giants, which have announced job cuts in the face of PC industry decline in recent years, are Microsoft Corp, HP Inc and Intel Corp.

Microsoft Corp kicked off one of the largest layoffs in Tech history in July 2014 after it said it would slash 18,000 jobs.

HP Inc said in September 2015 that it expected to cut about 33,300 jobs over three years.

Intel said in April that it would slash up to 12,000 jobs globally, or 11% of its workforce.

Cisco increasingly requires “different skill sets” for the “software-defined future” than it did in the past, as it pushes to capture a higher share of the addressable market and aims to boost margins, the report said.

Cisco has been investing in new products such as data analytics software and cloud-based tools for data centres, to offset the impact of sluggish spending by telecom carriers and enterprises on its main business of making network switches and routers. It has already offered many early retirement package plans to Cisco’s staff, the report said.

The company’s stock had risen about 15% this year, compared with a 10.5% increase in the Dow Jones technology index.