Dive Brief:
- Oracle plans to lay off about 450 employees in its Santa Clara, CA hardware systems division, according to a letter sent by Oracle to the California Employment Development Department, The Mercury News reports. Companies are required to provide notice of impending mass layoffs under federal law.
- Workers affected appear to be primarily SPARC and Solaris developers.
- A statement released by Oracle said the Santa Clara facility is not closing, but confirmed layoffs are happening as the company pivots its strategy. "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," according to the statement.
Dive Insight:
Sales of Oracle’s on-prem software and hardware services have suffered as more businesses move to the cloud. According to the company’s most recent quarterly earnings report, the company’ revenue from hardware products fell 13% in September through November of 2016 compared to the same time period year before, and revenue from new software licenses dropped 20%.
Meanwhile, revenue from the company’s cloud Software as a Service and Platform as a Service grew 81% in its latest earnings report, making it clear the company needs to focus more of its efforts there to ensure a profitable future.
