Networking Giant Juniper Networks To Cut Over 400 Jobs Globally Amid Restructuring Efforts

Networking products giant Juniper Networks will lay off hundreds of employees in the coming months as part of its restructuring and budget reallocation measures.

The layoffs, which are expected to be completed by the end of the first quarter of the 2024 fiscal year, are part of the Sunnyvale, California-based company's "restructuring plan intended to reallocate resources to efficiently support its strategic priorities," showed a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), dated Sept. 29.

Juniper is expected to reduce its global headcount by around 440 employees.

The computer networking products provider, which has the City of Las Vegas and AT&T as customers, expects cash charges and other expenses related to the layoffs to reach around $40 million. It also expects to incur restructuring and related charges of up to $19 million.

The company said the layoff process in offices outside the U.S. may extend beyond the expected end date due to employment laws and regulations in those countries.

The restructuring process at Juniper was "the result of a thorough review of the company's business objectives, and is intended to focus on realigning resources and investments in long-term growth opportunities," it said in the SEC filing.

The company also expects around $14 million in costs related to impaired assets, which are assets that are valued less than the value listed on the balance sheet.

While presenting the company's third-quarter earnings report in July, Rami Rahim, Juniper's CEO, said the networking solutions developer was "currently facing some near-term order weakness from our cloud and to a lesser degree, our service provider customers."

The last known layoffs at Juniper was in 2017 when the company logged a 2% year-on-year drop in its third-quarter earnings. The exact number of affected employees was not revealed at the time, but the company said the workforce reductions were made "to prioritize" investments in the business' most critical areas.

"We continue to be laser-focused on cost discipline. With today's workforce realignment, we're making sure we are doing that prudently," Ken Miller, Juniper's chief financial officer, had said.

News about layoffs at Juniper came a few weeks after another networking behemoth announced workforce cuts.

Cisco Systems announced it will cut hundreds of jobs this month, saying it was part of the "rebalancing effort" the company started in November 2022 – around the same time when tech companies implemented mass layoffs.

The tech industry has been undergoing a worker reckoning that has led to mass layoffs since late last year. The number of tech employees who lost jobs has already breached the 240,000 mark this year, according to layoffs tracker layoffs.fyi.