RICHARDSON, Texas -- As part of an attempt to save money during the economic slump, Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO) is reportedly going to let two of its planned seven buildings here remain unfinished. The hollowed interior of one building and the bare foundation of another will embody just how quickly the firm that was once the world's most valuable company was overtaken as the economy began its downward spiral.

Last Friday, The Dallas Morning News reported that Cisco will not complete two of its new buildings at its campus along State Highway 190. When contacted by Light Reading, Cisco spokesman Chris Peacock said he had read the story and that he could not go on the record and confirm the report to be true.

On Monday, Cisco gave analysts a business and financial update, by which it announced more layoffs and significantly lowered profit and revenue expectations for the next three to six months. Part of the $800 million to $1.2 billion restructuring charge Cisco will take against its third quarter earnings includes between $300 million and $500 million in "excess facilities charges." (See Cisco Projects Revenue Dip.)

Cisco hasn't officially said to what extent it's paring back its expansion plans here, but it stands to reason that its retreat will be considerable. For one thing, the heart of Cisco's operations here -- its wavelength router business unit -- has been shuttered with the cancellation of the ONS 15900 product. That product was brought to Cisco through its acquisition of Monterey Networks, a startup with more than 200 people.

At a North Dallas Chamber of Commerce telecommunications conference in December, Cisco executives told those assembled that the company's Richardson presence would be spread throughout seven brand new buildings on a sprawling 78-acre campus.

The new digs were going to house some 6,000 employees, many of whom would work for Cisco's service provider business unit. About seven of the planned campus's 20 floors were going to be devoted to research and development, primarily for optical networking, executives said.

The Richardson area is still a "key part of Cisco's future," Peacock says, but he adds that Cisco is adjusting "the timing and scale" of its expansion here. He says Cisco will begin to occupy some of the new buildings on its campus here this summer and, in doing so, will consolidate some of its other area offices.

The technology areas that Cisco will continue to house here include long-haul DWDM (dense wavelength-division multiplexing), wireless networking, and VOIP (voice over IP).

Prior to Cisco's ongoing layoffs, the company employed about 1,500 people in Richardson and about 44,000 worldwide.

-- Phil Harvey, Senior Editor, Light Reading http://www.lightreading.com