US tech giant Oracle has reportedly informed its Chinese staff to prepare for massive layoffs which could potentially affect almost 1,000 local employees as it’s closing down its China Research and Development Center.
In a notice purported to be from Oracle China circulated on social media, the firm said it had to make “some very difficult decisions”. “Very regretfully, these decisions will affect some colleagues at the research and development departments in China,” the notice read.
Oracle confirmed towards other media that about 900 employees will be let go as part of the change.
In the note, Oracle said it will offer affected staff members with generous severance packages and that it has informed trade unions in their Chinese entities.
The US tech giant has reportedly been downscaling its engineering team worldwide as it seeks to move away from old-fashioned software to cloud services.
The company has several research and development facilities in China, including in Beijing, Shenzhen, Nanjing, Suzhou, and Shanghai. The center in Shenzhen, set up in 2002, was the first.
Oracle’s China layoff plan comes amid escalating political pressure for US companies to decouple from China, the world’s second-largest economy.
The US-China economic and security review commission issued a new report yesterday accusing Chinese companies of using various methods to steal technology, intellectual property and know-how from US firms.
It’s not the first time Oracle is rumored to be letting go parts of its China team. In January 2017, days before Donald Trump swore in, Chinese media reported that Oracle was cutting 200 R&D jobs in Beijing.
Editor: Nadine Freischlad
Write to Luna Lin at lunalin@kr-asia.com