Cisco To Lay Off 7 Percent Of Workforce, Take $1B Hit In Restructuring

Cisco will spend between $700 million and $800 million in the first quarter of its 2025 fiscal year.

Cisco Systems confirmed massive layoffs Wednesday with plans to cut about 7 percent of its global workforce, which should cost up to $1 billion.

The San Jose, Calif.-based networking giant said in a regulatory filing that the cost will mostly consist of severance, one-time termination benefits and other costs. Cisco will spend between $700 million and $800 million in the first quarter of its 2025 fiscal year. The 2024 fiscal year ended July 27.

Reuters earlier this week reported that Cisco was slated to lay off thousands of its employees.

On Wednesday, Cisco also reported earnings for the fourth quarter of the 2024 fiscal year. The vendor saw $13.6 billion in revenue, a 10 percent decrease year over year but coming in above the high end of the vendor’s guidance range. Splunk brought in $960 million in total revenue for the fourth quarter.

[Related: Cisco COO Maria Martinez Suddenly Departs In Wake Of Widespread Layoffs]

Cisco Confirms Layoffs

For the fiscal year, Cisco brought in $53.8 billion in revenue, down 6 percent year over year.

Splunk brought in $1.4 billion of total revenue for the fiscal year.

Cisco’s stock rose more than 5 percent in after-hours trading Wednesday to $48.11.

Cisco – a member of CRN’s 2024 Channel Chiefs – employed about 85,000 people in July 2023. Cisco's February layoff of about 4,000 employees should have left the vendor with about 80,000 employees, meaning a further 7 percent reduction could affect around 5,000 employees. After the reduction, the global workforce should be around 75,000 people.

The vendor isn’t alone in cutting headcount in the AI era. Dell Technologies also said it would be laying off employees in a restructuring efforts.