Oracle has begun laying off employees in the US to prioritise its healthcare IT services and cloud businesses.
After deciding to cut costs of up to $1 billion, the cloud database giant has started to lay off staff at its advertising and customer experience group.
Oracle insiders also said the restructuring caused ‘complete chaos’ in the company, while one employee said the advertising and customer experience teams were ‘obliterated’ by the move.
Although there is no official statement on the matter from Oracle yet, several sources described the layoffs as “widespread”. Many affected employees expressed their thoughts on Linkedin, including some that have been employed by the company for decades.
One of the reasons for downsizing the CX division might have to do with the fact that it has long lagged the growth of the rest of the company.
During an event last year, Oracle Executive Vice President Douglas Kehring stated that the unit was historically “a little more disappointing than it should have been.”
Top-position executives were not spared from this move either, as Chief Marketing Officer Ariel Kelman departed Oracle in June.
According to some sources, the job cuts came as the company recently received regulatory approval for its $28.3B deal for health information technology supplier Cerner, which signals the shift in Oracle’s business focus.
As of May 2021, Oracle had around 140,000 full-time employees, according to its latest annual report.
