Cisco, a U.S. networking equipment manufacturer, is planning to cut thousand of jobs in a second round of layoffs this year, sources familiar with the matter said.
This decision will help the company’s shift to higher growth areas such as cybersecurity and AI. The number of people affected could be similar or slightly higher than the previous 4,000 employees Cisco laid off in February. The layoffs will most likely be announced as early as Wednesday along with the company’s fourth-quarter results, sources shared.
As of July 2023, The company employed around 84,900 people, according to its annual filing. That number does not account for the February layoffs.
The layoffs are the latest in the tech industry, which has been cutting costs this year to offset big investments in AI. Over 126,000 people have been laid off across 393 tech companies since the start of the year, according to data from tracking website Layoffs.fyi.
Cisco, despite being the largest maker of the routers and switches that direct internet traffic, has been struggling with demand and supply-chain constraints slowing down its main business.
That has pushed the company to also diversify with moves such as its $28-billion buyout of cybersecurity firm Splunk, which it completed in March. And in June, it launched a $1-billion fund to make investments in AI startups such as Cohere, Mistral AI and Scale AI.
The company said at the time it had made 20 AI-focused acquisitions and investments in the last several years.
-Reuters
