In another indicator of tough economic times, Cisco Systems is canceling a global gathering of its top several thousand sales people, ChannelWeb has learned.
As part of its effort to slash some $1 billion in costs in the next year, Cisco is expected to announce to employees Wednesday the cancellation of the annual gathering, slated to run Aug. 18-31 in San Francisco next year.
Cisco's most recent global sales conference brought some 5,000 of its top sales producers to San Francisco between Aug. 24 and Sept. 5 of this year.
The move to cancel global sales meeting follows Cisco's decision last week to cancel its Women's Leadership Forum, which was scheduled to be held in San Diego this week.
Cisco executives did not return calls at post time.
Cisco last week Cisco posted earnings of $2.2 billion, or 37 cents per share, down slightly from the same quarter a year ago. But the company said it expected revenue to decrease between 5 percent and 10 percent year-over-year in the second quarter.
In a quarterly earnings call with analysts, Cisco Chairman and CEO John Chambers said the company planned to reduce fiscal year 2009 expenses by more than $1 billion by realigning resources, implementing a hiring freeze and further cutting the amount of business travel within the San Jose, Calif.-based company.
