Cisco Systems Inc. will lay off hundreds of workers in two San Francisco Bay Area cities next month, according to state filings last week.
In a WARN notice sent to the state July 17 and received Sept. 12, the company said it would permanently lay off 123 employees at a Milpitas address and 227 at a San Jose address. The layoffs will take effect on Oct. 16, according to the notice.
Through May, Cisco Systems had announced layoffs of 700 workers, including 80 located in San Francisco offices, according to The Standard's research. The company also laid off 4,000 workers between January 2022 and January 2023, putting it at No. 6 in a ranking of the top U.S. tech companies with the most layoffs.
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In an Aug. 16 press release, Cisco announced earnings of $12.6 billion for the fiscal year ended July 29, up 7% from 2022. The company also spent $2.8 billion on share buybacks and closed acquisitions of three privately held companies—cloud security software firm Lightspin Technologies Ltd., digital analytics and product experience firm Smartlook s.r.o. and large language model cybersecurity firm Armorblox Inc.—during the fourth quarter.
"This is about prioritizing investments in our transformation and not about cost savings," a Cisco spokesperson said in a statement.
"Cisco has roughly the same number of employees as before the process began, and we continue to do everything we can to help place affected employees in open roles and offer extensive support including generous severance packages."
The overall number of tech layoffs appears to be declining after a brutal year for the Bay Area’s tech-heavy economy. San Francisco tech companies laid off over 12,000 employees in January, a figure driven mainly by Salesforce’s decision to cut 8,000 employees that month. Yet layoffs have steadily slowed since then, with July reporting 1,178 layoffs.
In August, San Francisco-based online retailer Wish said it would slash its global workforce by 34%, or 255 employees. The layoffs will affect 160 workers based in the U.S., according to a Tuesday filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. It is unclear how many affected employees work in San Francisco.