Cisco Systems, the largest networking-equipment company, may cut as many as 10,000 jobs, or about 14 per cent of its workforce, to revive profit growth, according to two people familiar with the plans.
The cuts include as many as 7,000 jobs that would be eliminated by the end of August, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the plans aren't final. Cisco is also providing early-retirement packages to about 3,000 workers who accepted buyouts, the people said.
Cisco chief executive John Chambers is slashing jobs and exiting less-profitable businesses as competitors such as Juniper Networks and Hewlett-Packard take market share in Cisco's main businesses with lower-priced, simpler products. Sales of Cisco's switches and routers, which made up more than half of revenue last year, will continue to slip, said Brian Marshall, an analyst at Gleacher and Co.
Eliminating jobs will help Cisco wring $1 billion in savings in fiscal 2012, the company said in May. Cisco expects costs of $500 million to $1.1 billion in the fiscal fourth quarter as a result of the voluntary early retirement program, it said in a quarterly filing.
“As we outlined on our third quarter earnings conference call, we are in the process of determining where we need to reduce, align and redeploy our global workforce,” a spokeswoman for Cisco said.
The company employs about 200 people in Ireland.
The voluntary retirement packages included one year's pay and medical benefits, and were offered to about 5,800 employees, sources said.
"The revenue trajectory hasn't been where it should be," Mr Marshall, who has a "neutral" rating on the stock with a target price of $17, said in an interview. "The company is not staffed on an appropriate level. They simply have too many employees."
Analysts at Gleacher and Miller Tabak and Co said yesterday that the company would cut at least 5,000 jobs as part of a turnaround effort.
Cisco's share of worldwide switching revenue dropped 5.8 percentage points to 68.5 per cent in the first quarter of 2011 from a year earlier, according to a May report from Dell'Oro Group, a California-based researcher. Hewlett- Packard gained switching share in that period.
In global router sales, Cisco lost 6.4 percentage points to 54.2 per cent of the market, while Juniper gained, Dell'Oro said.
Cisco's revenue is projected to rise 7 per cent this year to $43 billion, less than the 11 per cent growth posted in 2010, according to the average estimate of analysts in a Bloomberg survey. Analysts have an average stock target price of $20.62, Bloomberg data shows.
Cisco said in May that it shuttered the Flip video-camera unit and cut 550 jobs. The company may eliminate more positions in the consumer-product unit, which makes Linksys home-networking equipment, Marshall said.
Some investors have said the company should exit consumer products entirely to focus on traditional enterprise offerings such as routers and switches. Cisco's equipment is used by corporate networks and telephone and internet service providers to direct Web traffic.
Trimming about 5,000 jobs would reduce operating expenses by about $1 billion annually and boost 2012 earnings by about 8 per cent, Mr Marshall said.
The company is also reorganising management to streamline its business and focus on areas of growth, Cisco said in May. To speed decision making, the company organised field operations into three geographic regions and reformed a council-style management structure.
Reuters
