Computer networking and communications giant Cisco has announced that it would cut up to 6,000 jobs, or 8 percent of its global workforce, as part of a major restructuring. The announcement came after the company announced its fourth quarter results, beating market expectations.

The company has already cut around 12,000 jobs between 2011 and 2013, with the last major restructuring happening in 2013.

This latest decision to reduce its workforce comes as the San Jose, California-based company continues to struggle in emerging markets as well as in its service provider video business. "The emerging markets lost momentum in Q4", said John Chambers, Cisco's chief executive. "We will exit this year pretty much with the same number of people we started the year with". Cisco's global workforce currently stands at around 74,000.

Chambers also said that the decision to cut jobs is aimed at making room for hiring staff in units that are growing. These include the company's data center, software, security, and cloud offerings. Although he didn't directly mention the name of the units that will bear the brunt of cuts, Chambers did mention as an example sales representatives in countries where revenues are shrinking.

The company reported a profit of $2.24 billion on sales of $12.36 billion, compared with a $2.27 billion profit and sales of $12.4 billion for the same period a year ago. Analysts had expected an earnings of 53 cents a share on $12.15 billion in revenue. Chambers said the company expects its Q1 revenue to be flat to up 1% from a year ago.