Contrary to a layoff rumor, Oracle is not planning massive sales force staff cuts this summer, CEO Mark Hurd told CNBC in an interview published today.
Updated Sept. 5, 2017: More alleged Oracle job cuts.
Updated June 1, 2017: Oracle reportedly made job cuts today.
Original May 4 report: TheLayoff.com suggested Oracle is planning its biggest reorg and layoff since 2007. The Register piled on with more Oracle layoff rumors. In response, Hurd told CNBC:
"I think that's fake news. I've seen a couple of reports over the past two weeks, including that we were going to make a big acquisition. There is no merit to that whatsoever. I saw a report that we were cutting our sales force, there is not merit to that whatsoever."
No doubt, Oracle has made some targeted layoffs in recent months. Also, the company has dramatically increased some quotas for selected salesforce members in recent months, Oracle sources have told ChannelE2E.
Still, Hurd is pushing back -- aggressively -- against the latest layoff rumor. And he's also painting The Register as a rumor monger. That media site had reported that Oracle was mulling an Accenture takeover, but Oracle has repeatedly denied that report as well.
Oracle, like most major IT companies, continues to transition from traditional hardware and software sales to cloud services and software subscriptions. Although Amazon Web Services, Microsoft and Salesforce are considered market leaders, Oracle is making progress.
On an annualized non-GAAP basis, Oracle's total cloud business has reached the $5 billion mark, and the company's SaaS and PaaS businesses grew 85% in Q3 2017 vs. Q3 2016, CEO Safra Catz said during the company's March 2017 earnings call.
