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Cisco To Lay Off Thousands More Employees To Focus On AI And Cybersecurity

By Nagasunder in US business news, posted August 12, 2024

Cisco Systems is set to lay off thousands of employees in a second round of job cuts as it focuses on AI and cybersecurity.

The announcement, expected with its Q4 results, follows February’s reduction of 4,000 positions

The organization employed approximately 84,900 individuals as of July 2023, according to its annual filing. The February layoffs are not included in that figure.

Sluggish demand and supply chain constraints have challenged Cisco. This has necessitated the company's diversification of operations, as evidenced by its $28-billion acquisition of cybersecurity firm Splunk in March.

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The acquisition will decrease the company's dependence on one-time equipment sales.The company has been striving to integrate AI products into its product line. It is looking to generate $1 billion in AI product orders by 2025 in May.

Cisco will eliminate thousands of positions in a second round of redundancies as it transitions to higher-growth sectors like AI and cybersecurity

In June, it established a $1 billion fund to invest in AI ventures, including Scale AI, Mistral AI, and Cohere.

At that time, the organization disclosed it had executed 20 AI-related investments and acquisitions over the previous few years. The redundancies result from the technology industry's efforts to reduce costs to pay for investments in artificial intelligence.

Over 126,000 individuals have been terminated from 393 technology companies since the beginning of the year.In August, Intel reduced its personnel by more than 15 percent, or approximately 17,500 individuals, to revitalize its unprofitable manufacturing business.

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