Cisco To Cut Costs With Holiday Shutdown

The San Jose, Calif.-based networking company will be closed in parts of North America for the week of Dec. 29, the week between the Christmas and New Year's Day holidays, ChannelWeb has learned.

"Cisco will implement a mandatory year-end shutdown of the US-Canada theater from December 29, 2008, through January 2, 2009, with some exceptions for targeted business-critical teams including technical assistance services and channel partner and customer product ordering services," Cisco confirmed in an e-mailed statement.

The shut-down comes as part of Cisco's previously announced plan to reduce fiscal year 2009 expenses by $1 billion, an effort that includes reductions in travel and discretionary spending, including off-site meetings, events, trade shows and marketing, according to the statement.

Cisco Chairman and CEO John Chambers disclosed the planned $1 billion cut-back during a Nov. 5 conference call to discuss the vendor's first-quarter earnings. At that time, Chambers said he expects Cisco's revenue to decrease between 5 percent and 10 percent year-over-year in the second fiscal quarter, mainly due to a drop in technology spending amid a shaky economic environment.

Nevertheless, the networking vendor is committed to holding its 2009 Cisco Partner Summit, a spokesman said. The event is scheduled to take place June 1 through June 4, 2009, in Boston. More than 2,000 solution provider executives from more than 1,000 companies attended the 2008 Cisco Partner Summit, held in Honolulu in April, the spokesman said.

Other Cisco events have not fared as well. The company confirmed earlier this month that it has cancelled its 2009 Global Sales Meeting scheduled for Aug. 18 through Aug. 31, 2009, in San Francisco. The company also called off its Women's Leadership Forum, which had been slated for Nov. 12 through Nov. 13, 2008 in San Diego.