Cisco to cut 1,300 jobs worldwide

Tech giant Cisco Systems said it plans to cut 1,300 jobs, or 2 per cent of the workforce, as part of an effort to eliminate costs and streamline decision making.

"We routinely review our business to determine where we need to align investment based on growth opportunities," San Jose, California-based Cisco said in a statement.

"Additionally, we continue to evaluate our organisational structure as part of our plan to drive simplicity, speed of decisions and agility across Cisco."

The cuts follow last year's decision to eliminate about 6,500 jobs, or 9 per cent of the full-time workforce, to help trim $1 billion in annual costs and step up profit growth.

Cisco chief executive John Chambers has been eliminating jobs and abandoning less-profitable businesses to reverse a sales-growth slowdown and stem market-share losses to rivals including Juniper Networks.

The technology firm recently announced a €26 million investment in its research and development centre in Galway which will create 115 jobs in the coming years.

Cisco’s Irish operation, which opened in Co Galway five years ago, employs 180 people locally and 100 in Dublin.

Cisco, which was set up by a husband-and-wife team in California in 1984, is one of the world’s largest manufacturers of equipment for computer networks. It was valued at about €30 billion in 2010.