CNN
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Expertise firm Cisco introduced Wednesday that it plans to put off 5% of its international workforce, amounting to hundreds of workers, as a part of a company-wide restructuring.
Cisco joins an extended listing of tech firms which have introduced workforce cuts in latest months.
The networking {hardware} and software program maker said Wednesday that it plans to shift its focus to “key precedence areas,” comparable to synthetic intelligence.
“We proceed to align our investments to future progress alternatives,” Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins stated in the corporate’s second quarter earnings launch. “Our innovation sits on the middle of an more and more linked ecosystem and can play a essential function as our clients undertake AI and safe their organizations.”
Cisco employs practically 85,000 folks, in response to the corporate’s most up-to-date annual report, that means that greater than 4,000 employees will probably be affected by layoffs.
Cisco indicated that the layoffs would start this 12 months and proceed into subsequent 12 months, saying severance and different termination advantages for workers would price the corporate a complete of practically $800 million.
The corporate, contending with falling income, has turned its focus to the booming AI trade. Final 12 months, the corporate announced it could purchase machine studying and cybersecurity firm Splunk in a deal valued at $28 billion.
“The mix of those two revolutionary leaders makes them effectively positioned to steer in safety and observability within the age of AI,” Cisco said in a September press launch saying the deal.
On Wednesday, Cisco additionally introduced that its income fell 6% year-over-year in its fiscal second quarter and its earnings-per-share fell 3% over the identical interval.
Cisco’s job cuts come amid a string of layoffs within the tech trade, whilst these firms pour billions of {dollars} into AI. Google, Amazon, PayPal and Duolingo have all introduced layoffs not too long ago. All informed, greater than 34,000 tech workers have been laid off for the reason that begin of 2024, in response to knowledge compiled by Layoffs.fyi.