Cisco Joins HP In New Year's Cost-Cutting Shutdown

[FarCenter]

Except for some critical teams like technical assistance, channel partner, and customer product ordering, Cisco will close shop later this year.

By J. Nicholas Hoover - InformationWeek - November 25, 2008 02:30 PM - http://www.informationweek.com/news/management/trends/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=212200463&cid=nl_IWK_daily_H

In the latest indication that the global economic crisis is having a negative effect on the networking company, Cisco (NSDQ: CSCO) will largely shut down its U.S. and Canadian operations for one week at the end of the year as part of cost-cutting measures "given the challenging macroeconomic environment," the company said Tuesday.

Except for some critical teams like technical assistance, channel partner, and customer product ordering, Cisco will close shop from Dec. 29 to Jan. 2. It's not clear if Cisco has ever shut down for a week as a precautionary cost-cutting measure before, but Hewlett-Packard (which often shuts down for a week during the holidays) last week said it would add another week of closure to its schedule this year.

During an earnings call earlier this month, Cisco CEO John Chambers laid out a multipronged plan to save about $1 billion in expenses next year. The cuts will come from reduced spending on travel, marketing, and events as well as other measures, including a hiring "pause." Chambers said the company would continue to "be aggressive" investing in new products and markets during the "slowdown," though he noted those plans could shift if Cisco determines that the bad market will last longer than expected.

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[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

1. Considering some of the issues...

That still lurk in IOS and Cisco's historically slow response to those issues, when filed as a bug report or service issue, I cannot decide if this is bad juju or will seem just like business as usual.