Cisco Layoffs: 101 California Employees Cut Following $1B Cost-Cutting Plans

Continuing with its $1 billion cost-cutting measures, Cisco revealed it will lay off 101 employees from its corporate headquarters in December.

Cisco Systems this week revealed it is letting go 101 employees from its San Jose, Calif., headquarters following months of speculation that more job cuts were coming as part of its restructuring effort.

The latest round of layoffs were disclosed via Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) notices received by the state of California’s Employment Development Division earlier this month. The disclosures were made as part of the federal WARN Act, which requires most employers to give advance notice of significant layoffs.

According to the WARN notices, included positions in the most recent round of cuts were software engineers, product managers, program managers and data scientists. A director of product management and a director of software development were also included in the layoffs.

“Over the coming weeks and months, Cisco will increase our investments in key business areas that will drive customer satisfaction and partner profitability going forward and reduce investments in others. We will be restructuring parts of our business as a result. Our employees are our priority and we are committed to providing our full support to those transitioning to new roles or teams within Cisco or leaving the company. Where possible, we will offer employees options that enable them to make decisions that best suit their career goals and personal circumstances,” said a Cisco spokesperson to CRN in an email.

[Related: Cisco Partners: You’re Going To Need Us For Consumption-Based IT Shift]

In the wake financial fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic, Cisco Chairman and CEO Chuck Robbins in August said that the company would be cutting $1 billion in costs over the coming quarters to refocus its research and development investments to transition of the majority of its portfolio to be delivered as a service.

The companywide restructuring included both a voluntary early retirement program that saw many longtime Cisco executives across geographies leave the company as well as layoffs. As of October, a spokesperson for Cisco told CRN that all early retirement offers had been doled out. Cisco wouldn’t confirm the number of early retirement offers that had been issued.

One Cisco partner who spoke under the condition of anonymity called some of the recent executive moves “surprising.” “Then again, [Cisco] is wanting fresh folks to join the ranks,” the partner said.

Cisco in July laid off more than 480 employees at both its San Jose and Milpitas offices in California.

Cisco’s deputy general counsel of employment law, Saidah Grayson Dill, said that the most recent layoffs are expected to take place between Dec. 2 to 15.

The tech giant in November announced its fiscal first quarter 2021 earnings in which revenue declined for the fourth quarter in a row, falling 9 percent to $11.93 billion compared with $13.16 billion in the year-ago quarter.