"We have no plans for layoffs," Ellison said. "It's interesting to read the newspapers as I find I'm doing things which I never knew about."
Last Friday, Credit Suisse First Boston analyst George Gilbert said in a research note that Oracle was cutting about 1 percent to 2 percent of its work force, or approximately 400 to 800 employees. Citing industry sources, Gilbert said layoffs began late May, with cuts centred in CRM (customer relationship management) software development, and additional reductions expected in sales and marketing.
On Monday, Oracle confirmed that it reduced 200 positions from its development team, but indicated there weren't further cuts.
"Oracle recently laid off 200 people out of 42,000 employees worldwide, while IBM is laying off thousands of people," Ellison said.
About 5,600 people in IBM, including those in its server and services divisions, were given the pink slips in the second quarter of the year. Analysts predicted that Big Blue could cut as many as 9,000 employees to reduce costs.
And just how will Oracle manage its profits without trimming its workforce? Very well, said Ellison. "Our profits margins this year are spectacular, at 35 percent, despite deep (cost) reductions in the IT space," he told reporters Wednesday during OracleWorld Beijing 2002, the company's business and IT forum.
While analysts expect Oracle to miss estimates, Ellison maintained that the company would at least meet analysts' predictions for a profit of US$0.12 per share on revenue of US$2.6 billion for its fourth quarter, which ended May 31. Oracle will report its results on June 18.
