Oracle has begun cutting U.S. jobs with workforce reductions primarily impacting marketing and customer experience divisions, according to media reports.
The database giant planned thousands of job cuts for its global workforce of 140,000 after discussing cutting $1 billion in expenses, The Information reported in July.
Some workers were told Monday that their positions had been eliminated, Bloomberg reported. The layoffs at Oracle will affect employees at its offices in the San Francisco Bay Area, but Bloomberg's report did not mention the number of employees affected.
The Information reported Monday that layoffs in Canada, India and parts of Europe were expected in the coming weeks and months.
Oracle had about 143,000 full-time employees as of May 31, according to its latest annual report. Cerner has about 28,000 global employees, according to its website.
Oracle Cerner did not respond to a request for comment and did not confirm the layoffs.
The move comes as Oracle makes deeper investments in cloud technology for healthcare and just weeks after Oracle's $28.4 billion acquisition of health IT company Cerner in June.
Posts on Reddit and thelayoff.com indicate that the workforce reduction is impacting Cerner as well. According to those posts, the areas impacted include positions in population health, enterprise change management, enterprise process improvement, application services/support, marketing, talent acquisition and other areas.
An internal Oracle Cerner email that was shared on Reddit back in July indicated significant changes in the former Cerner business. That announcement, vetted by the Kansas City Business Journal, said the Cerner business unit is now called Oracle Health Global Industry Unit (GIU) or Oracle Health. Dave Feinberg, M.D., the former CEO of Cerner, was tapped to bet the chairman of Oracle Health, the announcement said.
Cerner’s engineering and product executives will be reporting to Oracle’s Don Johnson who runs all Oracle engineering for all applications and platform services. Corporate functions such as IT, finance, legal, and HR will be moved to Oracle teams.
Back in November, during a Q&A with investors and analysts, Feinberg acknowledged a round of upcoming layoffs that were brought to light by an anonymous post on Reddit. At that time, Cerner eliminated about 150 positions.
Feinberg and chief technology officer Jerome Labat both received "stay deals" to remain with Oracle for 12 months from the closing date. If Oracle terminates them, they will get $4.5 million and $2.3 million in cash, respectively, plus accelerated share vesting, according to a 171-page filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Four top executives, including former Cerner CEO Brent Shafer, have golden parachutes ranging from $10 million to almost $22 million if they are forced out in the Oracle acquisition, the SEC filings indicate.