Networking giant Cisco is just weeks away from layoffs that will see it cut 5,000 jobs – seven percent of its total workforce – according to an analyst from San Francisco based investment bank, Gleacher & Co.

The move could reduce the company’s operating expenses by $1 billion per year, analyst Brian Marshall wrote in a researh note.

In further discussion with the Wall Street Journal, Marshall said that that his analysis was based on what he thought Cisco needed to do.

"I think at the end of the day, we need to come to the fact that there is a pretty big disconnect between Cisco’s revenue performance and their headcount," he told the paper. "Look at the past eight quarters. They’ve raised their headcount by 10,000 employees, but their revenue hasn’t really gone up all that much."

Cisco said that it was still in the process of deciding where it needed to "reduce, align and redeploy" its employees.

"We expect to have these decisions made and communicated to our full-time and contractor employees by the end of summer 2011. We are unable to comment in more detail about specific numbers or regions that will be impacted," a spokeswoman told Information Age.