Cisco Systems will lay off 5,500 workers

Cisco Systems Inc. said Wednesday that it would cut about 5,500 jobs as part of a restructuring plan that the networking company said was necessary to help it focus more on high-growth areas such at security and cloud technologies.

Cisco said the cuts, which will begin in the company’s current, fiscal first quarter, would amount to about 7% of its total workforce. Reports earlier in the day said Cisco was likely to cut as many as 14,000 jobs. No details were immediately given as to how many jobs the San Jose-based company plans on shedding in the Bay Area.

Cisco made the job-cut announcement as part of its fiscal fourth-quarter earnings report. The company said that for the quarter that ended July 30, it earned $2.8 billion, or 56 cents a share, on sales of $12.6 billion, compared with a profit of $2.3 billion, or 45 cents, on $12.8 billion in sales in the same period a year earlier.

Excluding one-time items, Cisco earned 63 cents a share, which topped the 60-cents-a-share estimate forecast by analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters. Cisco’s sales were in line with analysts’ consensus outlook of $12.6 billion.

For its fiscal first quarter, Cisco estimates its earnings, excluding one-time items, to be in a range of 58 cents to 60 cents a share, and for sales to be between 1% lower and 1% higher than the $12.7 billion it reported a year earlier.

Cisco shares fell 40 cents, or 1.3%, to $30.72 on Wednesday. In after-hours trading, its shares were off almost 1% at $30.47.

Rex Crum writes for the San Jose Mercury News.