Cisco shares dip after reports of holiday shutdown
Locking doors to pay the bills
Regcast training : Hyper-V 3.0, VM high availability and disaster recovery
Cisco Systems plans to shut down its US and Canadian operations for the last week of December as part of a larger plan to cut fiscal 2009 expenses.
A Cisco spokeswoman confirmed the year-end office shuttering with El Reg, saying the networking omnicorp will close its doors December 29 through January 2. Certain exceptions will be made for certain business-critical teams like technical assistance and product ordering services for channel partners and customers.
The shut-down is part of Cisco's plan to reduce its fiscal 2009 expenses by over $1bn, "given the challenging macroeconomic environment," according to a company statement.
Other steps in Cisco's cost-saving scheme include reductions in travel and "discretionary-related expenses," like outside services, trade shows, prototypes, marketing, and equipment.
Shutting down operations at the end of the year isn't entirely uncommon for tech firms over the past few years, but it's the first time in Cisco's history that its swung such a plan into action.
Certainly a sign of the times.
Cisco's stocks fell nearly 6 per cent in the final hour of trading after news of the shut-down began to circulate. And some are blaming Cisco's four-day US and Canadian vacation on the overall decline of the tech-happy Nasdaq exchange. ®
Requirements Checklist for Choosing a Cloud Backup and Recovery Service Provider
COMMENTS
False advertising
I only came here to read a story about a big company handing out guacamole. Imagine my disappointment when I started to read the story.
@AC 01:31 GMT
Well, I am sure that HP will be very grateful for the massive number of orders that you will make between 29th December and 2nd January and I'll bet Cisco will by sat at home crying into their eggnog at missing out!
I'm not sure why this is such big news at all. In my experience most people that work in offices with the exception of critical staff take that period off voluntarialy anyway. On the occasions when I have worked over the holiday period there is nothing to do as no-one is ordering anything (apart from the time I was working at a wine company).
All Cisco are doing as far as I can see is saying 'Almost no-one will be at work and those that will won't be doing anything, so we might as well shut the offices and save ourselves some cash'. It seems like common sense given the current climate. Surely investors should be more concerned about companies that are happy to waste cash and energy than those that are looking at ways to save them?
not so surprising
This shutdown isn't so surprising. It may just be a way to get employees to use up their time-off, since that's on the books as a debt. Cisco has always been, as they put it, "frugal". As witness this joke which circulated internally, several years ago:
http://www.angelfire.com/ego/frugal/drink_frugally.jpg
IT infrastructure monitoring strategies
Agentless Backup is Not a Myth
Top 10 SIEM implementer’s checklist
Steps to Take Before Choosing a Business Continuity Partner
Enabling efficient data center monitoring
