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Up to 2,000 jobs to be cut at Cisco?

By Cisco Subnet on Thu, 02/05/09 - 10:51am.
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We all know the story, recognize the layoff dance by now, and Cisco is up on the floor gyrating away. First comes the hiring freeze - in Cisco's case, reported on in the press in November. Then comes the little tweaks, such as cutting a mere 129 jobs in Richardson, Texas -- a facility serving the broadband telephony market. Then the hemming and hawing, which happened at Cisco's analyst conference call last night. Cisco is giving every indication that it is heading for layoffs, but if you are looking for a silver lining, maybe it is this: Internetnews.com is reporting that the next round of cuts will be modest, as part of a normal restructuring in which perhaps 1,500 to 2,000 job will get the kibosh out of Cisco's total current headcount of 67,318.

At the same time, remember that Cisco CEO John Chambers said in December that cutting the fat from Cisco's payroll would not be done in small steps. If it happens, he promised that it would be another one-time massive cut (and associated write-off) like seven years ago during the previous downturn, where Cisco laid off 8,500 employees - 18% of its workforce - and announced a $2.2 billion inventory write-off, says the TechPulse360 blog.

Given that Cisco's stock price has been stagnant for years, and all the other IT companies are doing it, do you think it serves Cisco, or hurts Cisco, to announce a layoff at this time?

 

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Cisco Layoffs

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If the number is that small it could be just getting rid of under achievers more then anything else especially given it has been eight years or so since their last layoff.

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The Cisco Subnet blog is written by Network World managing editor Jim Duffy and is the official blog of Network World's Cisco Subnet community. The Cisco Subnet site is managed by Online Community Editor Julie Bort. Cisco Subnet is the independent voice of Cisco customers and is your gateway to daily Cisco news, blogs, opinion, books, prize giveaways and more. Visit the Cisco Subnet home page daily and while you are there, subscribe to the Cisco Alert e-mail newsletter, which includes news and views generated by the Cisco Subnet community as well as Cisco-related stories on Network World and elsewhere on the Web.