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Cisco to axe 1,300 (more) employees worldwide

Why? 'To drive simplicity, speed of decisions and agility'

Networking megacorp and server wannabe Cisco Systems plans to lay off 1,300 workers – about 2 per cent of its global workforce.

The company did not immediately respond to our request for comment, but MarketWatch reports that head spokeswoman Karen Tillman downplayed the importance of the move in an emailed statement.

"We routinely review our business to determine where we need to align investment based on growth opportunities," Tillman wrote. "Additionally, we continue to evaluate our organizational structure as part of our plan to drive simplicity, speed of decisions and agility across Cisco."

The cuts, Tillman said, are actually "a focused set of limited restructurings," that "are part of a continuous process of simplifying the company."

One year and one week ago, Cisco announced that it would give pink slips to 4,400 employees, had reached early-retirement agreements with 2,100, and would sell a Mexican set-top box manufacturing plant with 5,000 workers to Foxconn.

A month after that announcement, the cuts reached the executive suite, with nearly one in five of its top execs taking the fall, along with 1,200 contract workers.

On Monday, the day when this latest job-cut announcement was made after the closing bell, Cisco's stock price had peaked at $16.15 on the NASDAQ exchange. At 5:30pm Eastern time, it had sunk to $15.84 in after-hours trading. ®

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