Further job cuts: Cisco plans to lay off thousands more employees

Cisco Systems, headquartered in San José, plans to cut thousands more jobs in a second round of layoffs this year, according to news agencies Reuters and Bloomberg. The manufacturer of routers and switches wants to shift its focus to higher-growth areas such as artificial intelligence (AI) and cybersecurity. According to insiders, the number of employees affected could be similar to or slightly higher than the 4,000 Cisco laid off in February. Cisco is expected to provide more details on Wednesday when it announces its latest quarterly results.

A Cisco spokeswoman cited "the cautious macro environment, the continued absorption of large product inventories by our customers and the continued weakness in the service provider market" as reasons for the February layoffs. Cisco's biggest new competitor in its core market is Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE). This is particularly true after the planned takeover of Juniper Networks, if the antitrust authorities give their approval for the merger as signaled.

Cisco is following in the footsteps of other tech companies that have recently laid off thousands of employees. Intel, for example, announced last week that it was shedding 15,000 employees. The chip giant is struggling with sluggish sales. Dell is also laying off numerous employees as part of a restructuring of its sales teams. According to market observers, the wave of redundancies in the tech sector reached its highest point since the dotcom crash a few months ago. Recently, however, there have also been signs that it is losing momentum. According to the Layoffs portal, 397 tech companies have laid off a total of over 130,000 employees so far in 2024.

(anw)