Cisco is slashing jobs for the second time in 2024. We’ve seen this story before—too many times. Cisco says they are shifting the focus to high-growth areas, including AI and cybersecurity.
Just a few months ago, Cisco laid off 4,000 employees. The new layoff numbers are slated to coincide with announcing the company’s fourth-quarter results this week. A year ago, the company employed just shy of 85K people.
Some foresaw this move given the company’s $28-billion buyout of cybersecurity firm Splunk in March. The acquisition enables the company to move its revenues to a subscription business basis vs. one-time equipment sales.
In May, Cisco announced it would reach $1 billion worth of AI product orders in 2025, and in June this year, it launched a $ 1 billion fund for investments in startups such as Cohere, Mistral AI, and Scale AI. Cisco has made 20 AI-focused acquisitions and investments in the last several years.
The layoffs follow the tech industry trend of cutting costs this year to offset big investments in AI.
