Cisco to lay off at least 5,500 employees
Wednesday, August 17, 2016 at 9:08PM 
Photo courtesy of Sky News
Networking equipment company Cisco is making the shift from hardware to software and with it they’ll be losing seven percent of their workforce or at least 5,500 employees. There will be 70,000 employees remaining after the job cuts happen during the first fiscal quarter of 2017. The company made the announcement during its fourth-quarter earnings call on Wednesday afternoon. The layoffs could’ve been worse though as earlier claims said Cisco was supposedly going to let go as many as 14,000 employees.
Sales for the company grew two percent year-over-year (excluding a video unit) to US$12.6 billion during a quarter. Its stock was down 1.3 percent on Wednesday. It’s still going to be challenging for Cisco going forward as product or hardware make up almost half the company’s sales and three-fourths of its revenue in the last quarter. Meanwhile, its security business—which is its fastest growing segment—still represents four percent of its sales. It’s up 16 percent year-over-year or was worth $540 million during the quarter.
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