Recent reports claim that tech giant Oracle is planning to lay off more than 900 employees in its China operations. A bulk of these people will be taken off from the company's local research and development division which has a pool of 1,600 employees. While Oracle has yet to confirm these, a number of local Chinese news outlets have already reported on it.
One Chinese news site reported that 500 of the staff will be taken off from Oracle's Beijing operations. Some analysts see this as a step towards Oracle's plan to completely shut down the center within the foreseeable future.
Oracle did not confirm nor deny the reports. In a statement acquired by CNBC, the company said, "As our cloud business grows, we will continually balance our resources and restructure our development group to help ensure we deliver the best cloud services to our customers in China."
Oracle is reportedly offering those employees made redundant with a generous compensation plan. Employees who agree to resign by May 22 will be offered the N+6 plan wherein N stands for the number of years the employee has spent with the company.
As of this writing, it is still unclear as to why Oracle will make the reported cuts. A report from the Guangzhou-based 21st Century Business Herald reported that Oracle Asia Pacific's human resources executive said that the layoffs are a result of the company's decision to restructure not only its China division but its global division as a whole.
Following the reports, a number of photos and video clips have emerged on various social media platforms showing Oracle staffs gathered to protest the layoff plants. The layoffs in the company's China division came in just months after a similar move was made in the United States which saw more than 350 employees fired from its research and development division.
Despite being an American company, Oracle has built a substantial operation in Asia, and China in particular. The company has been in operation in China for close to twenty years now. Over these years, Oracle has built 14 branches, five research and development centers, and employs more than 5,000 people in the country. As for the company's Asia Pacific division, it accounts for about 16 percent of the company's total revenue stream.
Oracle has spent millions of dollars in order to improve its operation in China's business cloud industry. Despite these massive investments, the company is still considered a relatively small player. China's cloud services industry is dominated by services like Tencent Cloud, Alibaba Cloud, and China Telecom.
