Software giant Oracle has declined to comment on the fate of its 1,300 workers in Ireland after it emerged that the company is to axe 1,000 workers across Europe.
Oracle employs 1,000 workers in Dublin, plus an additional 300 workers from Sun Microsystems which the company bought for US$7.4bn in April.
The world’s second biggest software vendor revealed its plans to the company’s workforce in Europe last week after meeting with trade unions.
Globally, Oracle employs 86,000 people and is one of the last of the giant technology companies to announce cuts.
In recent months, Microsoft revealed plans to reduce its global workforce by 5,000 while other major tech firms, including EMC, SAP, Intel, IBM and HP, which have all outlined rationalisation programmes in light of the global recession.
Last week it emerged that Oracle plans to raise up to US$4.5bn in a new bond offering to investors, as the enterprise management software company moves to shore up its capital base following a string of acquisitions.
The company said it will use the proceeds from the offering “for general corporate purposes, future acquisitions, including our proposed acquisition of Sun, stock repurchases and repayment of other indebtedness,” according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing.
The company closed its recent quarter with US$12.6bn in cash and short-term investments, an increase of about US$1.3bn from the amount it had at the end of the preceding quarter. At the end of May, Oracle had US$9.2bn in long-term debt, down about US$1bn from US$10.2bn at the end of February.
By John Kennedy
