Cisco may cut as many as 10,000 jobs as part of its ongoing restructuring -- an additional 7,000 layoffs on top of about 3,000 employees who are said to have recently taken Cisco's early retirement offer.
Bloomberg late Monday referenced "two people familiar with the plans" as saying Cisco's much-scrutinized job cutting plan could eliminate 10,000 positions by the end of August, which would amount to about 14 percent of its workforce.
Impending job cuts, which Cisco first confirmed during its third quarter earnings call in May, are part of an ongoing corporate restructuring through which Cisco hopes to cut $1 billion in expenses by the end of its fiscal 2012.
Cisco has been pressured by competitors like HP and Juniper, which in the past years have stepped up their attack on Cisco's long-dominant switching and routing businesses. HP, in particular, has been touting market share gains against Cisco specific to switching.
July 8 was the stated last day on the job for participants in Cisco's Voluntary Enhanced Early Retirement program.
Cisco has not publicly commented on the number of Cisco employees that have taken the early retirement package; a Cisco spokesperson told CRN Cisco would discuss details in its fourth quarter earnings report on Aug. 10.
Cisco has already made several moves related to the restructuring, including the shutdown of its Flip video camera business, and big changes to its sales theaters that, among other changes, bring Cisco's channel sales under single, theater-based sales leaders.
Layoff whispers come as Cisco Live, Cisco's annual customer-facing technology event in Las Vegas, kicks off this week. Among other updates, Cisco at the event is expected to announce a refresh of its most popular Catalyst switching line, the Catalyst 6500.
