Cisco to cut more jobs

<p>Cisco Systems is cutting about 15percent of the jobs at its Petaluma optical networks center, part of a company realignment that also affects several other Cisco locations.</p><p>"We're scaling back our optical work to meet current demands," Cisco spokeswoman Abby Smith said Wednesday. "We continually review our operation and consolidate when it's appropriate."</p><p>A Cisco employee familiar with the action said about 40 Petaluma jobs were affected. Workers who don't get other jobs in the company are expected to receive severance packages.</p><p>Smith wouldn't confirm the number of job cuts but said affected employees in Petaluma would have a chance to apply for other positions at Cisco.</p><p>"These are valuable, skilled employees," she said.</p><p>The computer networking giant has almost 50,000 employees worldwide and will have about 250 in Petaluma after the realignment.</p><p>It's the latest in a series of downsizings at high-tech companies in Sonoma County, where Agilent, JDSU, Tellabs, Motorola and others have eliminated 5,500 jobs since 2001, according to state Employment Development Department.</p><p>Over the past 12 months, tech manufacturers have cut 400 jobs, or more than 1 in 10 of the 3,600 people who worked in the industry a year ago.</p><p>San Jose-based Cisco acquired the Petaluma optical networking business in 1999 from Cerent Corp. for $7.3billion. The acquisition gave Cisco an entry into the lucrative market for transport of voice, video and data over fiber optic cables.</p><p>At its peak, Cisco had about 600 employees in Sonoma County.</p><p>Most of the affected Petaluma employees are engineers working in optical network integration, Smith said.</p><p>Cisco made similar cuts in Petaluma last December, saying it was part of the company's "long-term business strategy."</p><p>On Wednesday, Smith said Cisco has no plans to close its Petaluma location. The company is operating out of four buildings at its six-building campus on North McDowell Boulevard, she said.</p><p>Cisco, the world's largest maker of routers and switches that direct Internet traffic, recorded $28.5billion in net sales in 2006, compared with $24.8billion in 2005.</p><p>The company's net income in 2006 was $5.6billion, up from $4.7billion for the prior year. Cisco will release results for the first quarter of 2007 on Nov. 8.</p>