Oracle axes jobs in Dublin and Galway

Software giant Oracle has announced that it is to reduce the headcount at its operations in Ireland over the next six months.

A statement from the company on Thursday said it was to cut a number of jobs within the finance area of its operations in Dublin and Galway.

While Oracle did not give full details on how many positions would be lost, it did estimate that staffing levels in Ireland would be reduced by around two per cent overall.

The firm said the reductions would be achieved through a combination of redeployment, natural attrition, non-renewal of temporary short term contracts and redundancies.

In its statement, Oracle stressed that it expected its facility in Galway to continue to be a part of its plans and that the jobs losses were only concentrated on the finance side of the business, rather than in areas such as technical support, engineering or sales.

Oracle currently employs more than 900 people in Ireland and 57,000 employees worldwide. The firm recently announced plans to slash more than 2,000 jobs following the completion of its $5.8bn purchase of CRM provider Siebel earlier this year.

The firm has embarked on something of a spending spree during the past few years as part of a strategy aimed at increasing revenues and market share through acquisitions.

Among the technology firms Oracle has purchased of late are enterprise software company PeopleSoft, which was procured for $10.6bn in January 2005 and retail software firm Retek which was bought in March of the same year in a deal valued at around$669m.

Overall, the company has acquired 20 companies since its takeover of PeopleSoft.

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