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Cisco Systems, the largest networking equipment company in the world, will lay off 14,000 of its over 73,000 employees, according to a new report by CRN. The company is expected to announce the news in the coming weeks and has reportedly already starting offering many employees early retirement packages.


CRN reports that these massive layoffs are emblematic of Cisco’s transition from focusing on hardware to software. Reuters reports that this will “offset the impact of sluggish spending by telecom carriers and enterprises on its main business of making network switches and routers.”

Guess the future really does exist in the cloud.

[CRN via Reuters]