Silicon Valley networking Cisco Systems said it would lay off 4,000 employees, or about 5 percent of its global workforce -- despite growth on the quarter.
"it's just not growing as fast as we need," said Cisco CEO John Chambers Wednesday, in releasing its fourth quarter financial results.
Chambers blamed sluggish growth and intense competition from other Silicon Valley companies in the decision, which brings the total of layoffs to 12,000 over two years.
Despite a report that Cisco brought int $2.8 billion on $12.4 billion in sales in the fiscal fourth quarter, and holds $50.6 billion in cash, shares fell 14 percent in trading after the announcement.
"I'm very pleased with how we are operating," Chambers said. "I'm very comfortable with our momentum. It's just not fast enough."
"We just have too much in the middle of the organization," he said. "We've got to speed time to market. Small teams move much faster."
Cisco makes networking equipment, including switches, routers, servers, security devices and videoconference equipment to government and businesses, and is looking to expand to more household, industrial and medical web-connected devices.
