Cisco Systems to lay off about 14,000 employees: CRN

As technology advances, many products are no longer popular or in need. Even though there are new gadgets, spending trends change and along with it, employment. I just saw this on Reuters. I'm hoping it's not an indication of more to come but I think the writing is on the wall.

Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO.O) is laying off about 14,000 employees, representing nearly 20 percent of the network equipment maker's global workforce, technology news site CRN reported, citing sources close to the company.

San Jose, California-based Cisco is expected to announce the cuts within the next few weeks, the report said, as the company transition from its hardware roots into a software-centric organization. ((link tracking not allowed)/2bEQfa3) Cisco, which had more than 70,000 employees as of April 30, declined to comment.

Cisco increasingly requires "different skill sets" for the "software-defined future" than it did in the past, as it pushes to capture a higher share of the addressable market and aims to boost its margins, the CRN report said citing a source familiar with the situation.

Cisco has been investing in new products such as data analytics software and cloud-based tools for data centers, to offset the impact of sluggish spending by telecom carriers and enterprises on its main business of making network switches and routers.

www.reuters.com...:+Trending+Content&utm_content=57b3c64e04d3017afee2f8df&u tm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=twitter

Cheap switches used to be crappy, now you can find many solid non-expensive ones. You also have virtual switches, virtual interfaces, virtual servers, and in general less need for the physical interconnections as processing power of each unit becomes so high.

a reply to: StoutBroux

Its not their fault its us. The corporations pay us to much money and we don't spend enough of it on useless # we don't need. We need to accept lower wages, longer hours and crappier jobs aswell as running up debt by buying things we cant afford. Thats the way our private banking run monetary system works. If the Tax Man comes knocking it just means you lost the game of musical chairs, along with all your money and possessions.

a reply to: StoutBroux

This is awful..............sad.
I guess its because of shift in ther business direction but my first fear was this is the beginning of job loss due to .................the robots.

I wouldn't worry. These people will find jobs easily in the rapidly changing tech industry.

a reply to: StoutBroux

Their cash cow will now be in services. Once all the routers and switches are in place where can you go? Enter WebEx. When they acquired webex I was wondering why? Now it makes sense. Layoff workers, increase margins (shareholder return), and focus on providing services.

I use WebEx every week (I host a multi-state meeting). It is pretty cool tool! Hand off control to another person in another state to view what they have done then hand off to another person in a different state for them to show their work... that is pretty neat stuff. And that will be Cisco's focus going forward.

Sucks for the workers though. Jobless is a major stress point.