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Oracle to Layoff 2000 Jobs

Joey Benington writes "Oracle plans to cut 2,000 jobs across the Siebel and Oracle work forces after completing its merger with Siebel last week. 'We will retain 90 percent of Siebel's support, development engineers, sales and sales consultants,' said Oracle CEO Larry Ellison. 'Most of the Siebel cuts will be in the back office, and nontechnical staff. The majority of the cuts will be Oracle people, not Siebel.'"

22 of 178 comments (clear)

  1. Its People! by jamesl · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Oracle to layoff 2000 jobs

    It should read, "Oracle to layoff 2000 people" Not jobs, people. People are losing their jobs. Its a sad thing.

  2. I hope they paid their.. by IAAP · · Score: 2, Interesting
    Christmas CC bills!

    FTFA: Delivery of the layoff notices has already begun, and the bulk of the pink slips will be handed out in the next few weeks

    I think it's better to get canned before Christmas. That way, you don't rack up a shit load of credit card debt.

  3. How do you layoff jobs? by Jivha · · Score: 5, Funny

    What in the hell does laying off *jobs* mean? I thought employees were laid off(or hired), and jobs were created or destroyed.

    Although this could be correct if it were at Apple. Imagine:

    "Apple lays off 1 Job(s)"

  4. It started yesterday by jerkychew · · Score: 3, Informative

    I have several friends at Oracle. I heard yesterday that they laid off over 20 people from just one floor at my friend's building. Some of them had been there for over seven years.

  5. Never understood this attitude by bigtallmofo · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It should read, "Oracle to layoff 2000 people" Not jobs, people. People are losing their jobs. Its a sad thing.

    A person losing their job is a scary thing for that person and their family. It's not necessarily sad. What is your philosophy when it comes to this? Once someone is given a job, does that mean they have it for life regardless of performance of the person or the company that person has chosen to align themself with? I can understand this statement coming from a brief moment of idealism or naiveness, but people lose their jobs. That's a necessary and proper action to maintain the economy as a whole. The realistic viewpoint is that most of the people laid off (especially the good ones) will go on to even better jobs.

    That is not sad. Scary for them, but not sad.

    --
    I'm a big tall mofo.
  6. Market forces by secretsockpuppet · · Score: 5, Interesting
    And Oracle India has been adding thousands of staff during past couple years.

    http://www.dqindia.com/dqtop20/2004/compdetails.as p?rank=19

    Good old market forces in action, folks. Nothing to see here, move along

  7. CFO says 100%, CEO says 90% by Jivha · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I don't know how many people noticed the subtle differences between what Safra Catz, Oracle CFO said and what Larry Ellison, its CEO said.

    "We will retain...Siebel's product development and product sales and marketing teams," said Catz.

    "We will retain 90 percent of Siebel's support, development engineers, sales and sales consultants," said Oracle CEO Larry Ellison. Obviously Catz is the one who must be lying because no one would be daft enough(no, not even Ellison) to say 90% if it were really 100%. Makes you wonder how much trust should be placed in corporate annoucements.

  8. Let me guess by bigtallmofo · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Sad? Everyone in the tech industry should get laid off at least twice. Except me, but I'm really fucking good. (and I mean this in the least arrogant sense possible - most of you will never even glimpse my level, never mind achieve it.)

    Based on this rant, I'm going to guess you just got a job in IT working at the help desk and can't believe how stupid those idiot users are. You know a lot about Windows XP and still think you know everything. You're likely a few years away from realizing just how little you do know and attaining humility.

    It's OK. Many IT people go through this phase. Best of luck to you.

    --
    I'm a big tall mofo.
  9. Saving some money for a shopping spree? by tanguyr · · Score: 3, Interesting
    --
    #!/usr/bin/english
  10. You forget... by IAAP · · Score: 2, Insightful
    that here in the US of A, spending beyond our means is a way of life. [Joke]Why, we have to. Without out us, the rest of world's economies couldn't grow. So it's a moral imperative that we run up huge amounts of debt! [/Joke]

    I, myself, ask that nobody give me anything for Christams. I don't need anymore stuff. I have too much stuff as it is. But, unfortunately, there seams to be this "law" somewhere that people have to buy "stuff" for others and spend waayyy too much money.

    I really wish Christmas was about friends and family. Getting together and having a nice meal, party, or whatever - no gifts! Sadly, that's not the way it is - at least here in the US of A.

  11. This is NOT an Oracle thing -- it's an acquisition by PeeAitchPee · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Layoffs are inevitable when one company buys another one. It's not "sad," it's a part of working in high-tech. Redundant positions are eliminated while typically (most of) the best people in sales, marketing, PS and dev are kept. Legal, HR, finance etc. usually totally get wiped out. Get over it and use it as an opportunity to find a better job. As for the Larry-bashing crowd: say what you want about Oracle and / or Ellison, but the fact is that it didn't really matter who bought Siebel -- layoffs were inevitable. The same thing happens when Google buys a company. I've personally been through two of them already in my relatively young career and everyone knew that layoffs were part of the deal. Besides, do you really think people who had been working for Tom Siebel were worried about something like losing their jobs? ;-)

  12. Re:Only 2,000 jobs lost by dsginter · · Score: 2, Funny

    These cuts are so that Larry can maintain his 450 foot personal cruise ship.

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    More
  13. Here's how by aapold · · Score: 2, Funny
    Delete from payroll
    where salary > 150000
    and upper(lname) != 'ELLISON';

    commit;
    --
    "Waste not one watt!" - CZ
  14. Re:And no doubt Oracle's stock will rise . . . by cryfreedomlove · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Please consider that often times a lay off is the most ethical thing a CEO can do. If you have 10 workers but you can only afford to pay 8, then it is the ethical choice to lay off the 2 before the finances of the business become so unsound that you have to lay off all 10.

    Besides, there's a collective hiring binge in the Bay Area right now. Most of the layed off folks will probably end up at Google with more pay real soon.

  15. Re:And no doubt Oracle's stock will rise . . . by PinkyDead · · Score: 2, Informative

    There's absolutely nothing screwed up about that.

    Oracle and Siebel will have common administrative services - of which the new company does not need two. I'm sure they won't have two CEOs, so shouldn't that propagate the whole way down the company.

    Laying those people off - while bad for the individuals - makes the company stronger and more secure. And what's the external measure of strength/security - stock price.

    2000 jobs out of 55000 is, say, about 1 in 30. I work with a group of about 30 people - and on average 1 person leaves every month. I don't see why anyone would be shocked at the appalling tragedy of that.

    You need to take a perspective view on this.

    --
    Genesis 1:32 And God typed :wq!
  16. How to survive - long-term by IAAP · · Score: 4, Interesting
    Will be through ownership. I detest this treatment of people like cogs as much as anyone, but the way survive this globalization trend is to become one those owners.

    It's the owners who are receiving the benfits of this mentality who are going to win with globalization - not the workers. They're fucked. Labor, including smart people (90th percentile - .1*1 billion = 100 million very smart people in India alone!), is a commodity, now.

    Another avenue is creativity. Not just the artsy folks, but being creative with new products and services and try to create your own asset to own.

    Just what I've been hearing from folks who are making it in this new economy.

  17. Re:Job Cuts seem to be in vogue by RingDev · · Score: 2, Informative

    This isn't a trimming for appearance, the is the buy out. Oracle bought Siebel. Both companies have accounting departments, human resources, upper management, accounts recievable, etc... There is no need to have 2 seperate accounting departments when 1 can run it just fine.

    And beside, it's not like they are getting dumped into a saturated market. Silicon Valley has thousands of openings in other tech companies. Most of these people will get snatched up by Google (1000+ openings), Yahoo (500+ openings), and Sales Force (150+ openings). http://money.cnn.com/2006/02/09/technology/busines s2_orcllayoffs/index.htm

    -Rick

    --
    "Most people in the U.S. wouldn't know they live in a tyrannical state if it walked up and grabbed their junk." - MyFirs
  18. Re:Job Cuts seem to be in vogue by Antique+Geekmeister · · Score: 2, Insightful

    This isn't always why layoffs happen. I've seen companies developing and releasing a good product, project market growth over the next few years that justify bringing some new staff, then have to cut back wildly as the market evaporates. It happened to a lot of good companies in the dotcom crash, and in the wake of 9/11, even if the companies were well run and actually doing good work.

    When people won't buy even good products, or stop traveling out of justified fear, you have to scale back your staff. The trick is to dump, without a big golden parachute, those "big idea" people who thought that all that expansion was a good idea and spent all the investor's money on office chairs for executives.

  19. Layoffs because of open source? by DogDude · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I know that this could never be measured in any kind of way, but I have to wonder... how many of these 2000 jobs lost are a result of open source competition? Are these jobs the direct result of Postgre SQL giving away their product? Is this the start of the decline of IT as we know it, because of Free software?

    --
    I don't respond to AC's.
  20. And yet ... by SABME · · Score: 3, Insightful

    ... various government and tech leaders in the U.S. are waving their hands and bemoaning the shortage of tech workers. And wondering about the decline in students interested in engineering and computer science.

    HELLO!??! What kind of idiot works their butt off studing for four years to enter a career that is stressful, demands never-ending study, and calls for ever-increasing sacrifices of personal time in return for a job that offers middling pay and doubtful prospects for long-term employment?

    Oh wait ... I'm that kind of idiot ... Never mind.

  21. BS by Ramjet350 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Anyone who tries to justify what Larry did is a moron. I was laid off yesterday from Denver and everyone can tell you it was not about duplicate positions. My manager told me that they never even contacted him to ask his opinion on who to let go. It was all chosen by some executives in California who just wanted to reduce numbers.

    They even had the balls to tell us they might call us if they realized it was a mistake and wanted you back. Does that sound like the "ethical" way to do things for a company?

  22. Re:And no doubt Oracle's stock will rise . . . by Daytona955i · · Score: 2, Insightful

    But what about when you can afford to pay 10 employees but you want a raise. You then lay off 2, put one of their salaries back into the company, and the other to your paycheck. Is that still ethical?