Cisco Confirms Second Round Of Major Job Cuts In 2024

Cisco has confirmed reports of a second round of job losses this year, after it delivered disappointing Q4 and full 2024 financial results.

Cisco confirmed in a regulatory filing it will axe another 7 percent of its employees, which according to the 84,900 employees as of July 2023 would roughly equate to 5,900 jobs.

This is now the second round of job losses at Cisco in 2024, after it had announced in February 2024 that it would cut 5 percent of its workforce, or roughly 4,250 jobs.

Jobs losses

“On August 14, 2024, Cisco announced a restructuring plan to allow it to invest in key growth opportunities and drive more efficiencies in its business,” the firm stated in its regulatory filing.

“This restructuring plan is expected to impact approximately 7 percent of Cisco’s global workforce,” it stated.

Cisco said it expects to recognise charges of approximately $700 million to $800 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2025 with the remaining amount expected to be recognised during the rest of fiscal 2025.

Financial decline

The second tranche of job losses come as Cisco delivered a weak Q4 and full year 2024 financial report.

In the fourth quarter ending 27 July, Cisco posted a net profit of $2.2 billion, down 45 percent from a net profit of $3.9bn in the same year-ago quarter.

Quarterly revenues also fell 10 percent year-on-year to $13.6 billion from $15.2 billion. Analysts, on average were expecting revenue of $13.54 billion.

This is now the third straight quarter that revenues have declined.

For the full year Cisco posted a net profit of $10.3 billion, down from a net profit of $12.6 billion. Revenue for the year also fell 6 percent to $53.8 billion from $57 billion.

“We delivered a strong close to fiscal 2024,” Chuck Robbins, chair and CEO of Cisco said in the earnings release. “In our fourth quarter, we saw steady customer demand with order growth across the business as customers rely on Cisco to connect and protect all aspects of their organisations in the era of AI.”

Shares of Cisco are down 10 percent this year, but due to the fact that quarterly results topped analysts’ estimates, its share price rose rose 5.5 percent to $47.92 after in after hours trading.

In March this year Cisco had closed its $28 billion acquisition of software and cybersecurity firm Splunk, that had been initially announced in September 2023.