Oracle to start PeopleSoft layoffs
Sales, support jobs seen most at risk
NEW YORK -- Oracle Corp. will disclose layoffs at PeopleSoft Inc. on Friday to integrate the recently acquired company into the world's second-largest business software maker, Oracle's chief financial officer said yesterday.
''On the personnel front, our goal is to get integration done this month," Oracle chief financial officer Harry You told investors at a Needham & Co. conference here. ''It would be literally in the next few days."
You would not specify how many jobs would be lost, but said Oracle would do what makes financial sense.
An Oracle spokeswoman later said the jobs announcement could come Friday or early next week.
Oracle completed its $10.3 billion purchase of PeopleSoft last Friday.
Industry analysts have estimated at least 6,000 jobs may be lost at PeopleSoft. The company ended 2003 with more than 12,000 employees, according to its latest regulatory filing.
Oracle is expected to cut 80 percent of sales jobs and up to 90 percent of administrative jobs at PeopleSoft, but keep the bulk of its research and development team, according to Richard Davis, managing director of Needham.
You said there is much room for improvement in PeopleSoft. Oracle learned over the holidays when combing PeopleSoft's financial records that 80 percent of its license revenue did not come until the last day of the quarter.
Oracle makes 40 percent of its revenue and earnings during the last month of the quarter, according to You.
A rush to clinch deals at the end of the quarter often leads to discounting, analysts have said. The business software sector has faced pricing pressures and slow demand in recent years due to tight technology budgets.
