Cisco puts the crunch on UK operations over New Year holidays

Network equipment maker Cisco will shut its UK operations for four days over New Year to help save $1bn in costs.

A Cisco spokesperson said the firm will also seek cuts in travel and discretionary-related expenses, including offsites, outside services, equipment, events, trade shows, prototypes, marketing and other activities.

“As part of this effort, Cisco will implement a mandatory year-end shutdown of the UK operations from 29 December 2008, through 2 January 2009, with some exceptions for targeted business-critical teams including technical assistance services and channel partner and customer product ordering services," the spokesperson said.

Cisco said earlier it would aim to reduce expenses for FY09 by over $1bn because of “the challenging macroeconomic environment”.