Cisco To Slash 6,000 Jobs in Latest Restructuring Effort

Cisco Systems Inc, the famous network hardware giant, announced in its fourth quarter earnings call that it would eliminate about 6,000 more jobs from its current workforce to cut down on expenses and manage sliding profits.

The cuts would represent about 8 percent of Cisco's total staff and are one of the major latest steps the company is adopting to bounce back in business.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Cisco is taking the drastic measure in order to streamline business and accommodate new and innovative skill sets in the workforce. While no specific branch was announced, but Cisco noted that the job cuts will be made in declining businesses.

Cisco also added that it will hire new staff for growing businesses and talented people fro those units that need guidance and growth.

"We will exit this year pretty much with the same number of people we started the year with. Some groups will not be affected at all. Others will," CEO John Chambers said in an interview with the publication.

This is the second consecutive year of major job cuts at Cisco. Last year in August, the company announced 4,000 job eliminations at around the same time to adapt better to the market changes and realign its resources.

Cisco's profits have been somewhat shaky after smaller companies started giving the giant some competition. While those companies are far from taking over Cisco, they have made it harder for the San-Francisco based firm to maintain its foothold in the market, The New York Times reports.

Cisco reported its fourth quarter revenue was "$12.36 billion, down from $12.42 billion in the same quarter a year ago. Net income was $2.25 billion, or 43 cents a share, down from $2.27 billion a year ago," according to the Times.