Oracle Considered $1B In Cuts, ‘Thousands’ Of Layoffs: Report

The tech giant recently considered cost-cutting measures to the tune of $1 billion which could result in thousands of job cuts on the heels of Oracle‘s massive $28 billion Cerner buy, according to a report published Friday.

AUGUST 2 UPDATE: ORACLE HAS REPORTEDLY BEGUN LAYOFFS AHEAD OF EARNINGS

Oracle has recently mulled reducing costs by as much as $1 billion and as a result, possibly letting go of thousands of its employees as early as August, according to a report published Friday by The Information.

The potential layoffs come on the heels of Austin, Texas-based Oracle closing its $28 billion acquisition of Cerner to give the company a deeper presence in the healthcare technology space. The acquisition brought in about 28,000 Cerner employees, according to the company‘s website.

Oracle did not respond to CRN‘s request for comment before publication.

[Related: 5 Cybersecurity Startups That Recently Laid Off Workers]

An Oracle spokesperson with knowledge of the situation said that the layoffs could “disproportionately impact” workers in the U.S. and Europe and would include marketing for software applications in customer service and e-commerce employees, the report said.

The potential cuts also come as Oracle actively makes investments to serve one of its key cloud customers, popular video app TikTok, which selected the Oracle platform in 2020.

At the same time, two senior Oracle executives are leaving the company, the report said. The departing executives are reportedly CMO Ariel Kelman who joined from AWS two years ago and has been leading the team working with TikTok and Juergen Lindner, senior vice president of marketing for SaaS, whose team is facing a potential reorganization and job cuts, the report said citing people familiar with the matter. CRN has reached out to Kelman and Lindner for comment but a source at Oracle confirmed the departures.

Oracle would hardly be the only company letting go staff this summer. Several public companies and startups have announced plans to conduct layoffs as a way to preserve cash until the market recovers. Cybersecurity technology developer IronNet in June revealed plans to lay off about 17 percent of its total headcount by the end of the month.

David Harris contributed to this report.