Oracle’s Growing Cloud Focus Leads To Another Mass Jobs Cull

Oracle is reportedly planning to cut up to 1,800 jobs as part of its continuing move away from hardware into software and cloud-based services.

The Mercury News first reported the cuts after spotting a letter Oracle sent to the US Employment Development Department (EDD) saying that around 450 employees will be axed from the company’s hardware systems division in Santa Clara.

Although Oracle hasn’t confirmed the total number, an anonymous post on redundancy rumours website thelayoff.com declared the “unofficial offices layoff tally” to be 1,800.

Job cuts

“The Santa Clara facility is not closing as part of this reduction in force,” the company wrote to the EDD. “Rather, Oracle is refocusing its Hardware Systems business, and for that reason, has decided to lay off certain of its employees in the Hardware Systems Division.”

Workers set to be let go predominantly include hardware and software developers and, according to the letter, all will receive full pay and benefits for 60 days.

Oracle declined to comment.

The tech giant has been turning its attentions to the cloud market for some time. Its Q4 2016 financial report showed a 50 percent increase in revenue for its cloud business, with its SaaS and PaaS divisions hitting growth of 66 percent year-over-year.

This was then followed by the release of a deluge of new cloud services and updates at Oracle OpenWorld in September, prompting executive chairman and CTO Larry Ellison to declare “Amazon’s lead is over.”

However, more recently the bad news has kept on coming. Just last week it was hit with a lawsuit for allegedly carrying out discriminatory hiring and employment practices, less than a month after a senior executive resigned over co-CEO Safra Catz’s support of Donald Trump.

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