NEW YORK - US NETWORKING giant Cisco said on Tuesday it was shutting down nearly all of its operations in the United States and Canada for four days over the New Year's holidays to cut costs.

A Cisco spokesman said that technical support and product-ordering would not be affected by the Dec 29 - Jan 2 closure, which comes amid a global economic downturn and is aimed at saving US$1 billion (S$1.5 billion).

An analyst for Swiss bank UBS said the shutdown of facilities was the first ever in the history of a company which has enjoyed spectacular recent growth supplying networking hardware and software for corporations.

Following the shutdown announcement, shares in Cisco were down 6.28 per cent to US$15.37 in New York at 1915 GMT (3.15am Singapore time).

UBS said Cisco was aiming for more than US$1 billion in savings and 'we believe it is prudent for Cisco's management team to plan for cushion in the event of weaker than expected revenues'.

Cisco warned earlier this month that revenue could drop between five per cent and 10 per cent during the current quarter, a figure UBS said was 'realistic'.

Its quarterly net profit of US$2.2 billion was better than analysts' expectations but little changed from the same period the previous year. -- AFP