(Telecompaper) Cisco reported revenue of USD 12.4 billion for its fiscal fourth quarter to July, down 0.5 percent from a year earlier. The gross margin rose to 59.9 percent from 59.2 percent a year ago, while the operating margin fell to 21.7 percent from 22.7. Net profit dropped 1.0 percent over the same period to USD 2.2 billion. Cisco said the operating environment remained "tough" but the company's book-to-bill ratio was "comfortably over 1" in the quarter. Cisco spent in total USD 13.3 billion in the past fiscal year on share repurchases and dividends and finished the year with total cash of USD 52.1 billion. While the company's headcount rose by around 1,000 last year to 74,000, Cisco announced another round of job cuts. It will eliminate around 6,000 positions at a restructuring cost of USD 700 million. Cisco CEO John Chambers told the Wall Street Journal that the job cuts are designed to make room for adding different kinds of skills, rather than lowering costs. He does not expect the total headcount to change over the current fiscal year, as staff are added in areas such as data centres, security and cloud offerings.