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Nearly 200 employees at Oracle’s Pleasanton office were among the reported 30,000 workers at the company worldwide who were notified that they were losing their jobs last week, according to records released in the days since by the state’s Employment Development Department.
Oracle notified the state on April 1 that it had sent separation notices to 158 workers at its Pleasanton facilities at 5815 Owens Drive on or before March 31, with the cuts effective as of June 1.
“The Pleasanton Campus is not closing,” senior vice principal of HR Anje Dotson wrote in the notice to the state. “No employees are represented by a union, no bumping rights exist, and it is anticipated that these layoffs will be permanent.”
Although Dotson said in the notice to the state that the affected employees were notified individually and would be separated on June 1, widespread reports from Oracle workers impacted by last week’s layoffs criticized the company for breaking the news via an abrupt, early morning mass email and promptly revoking their access to internal systems.
The cuts in Pleasanton hit 92 software developers, managers and directors, as well as 31 applications developers. Other positions impacted included product managers and product developers, quality assurance and site reliability developers.
The 158 job cuts in Pleasanton are among more than 700 at Oracle’s offices throughout the state, including 310 layoffs at its former headquarters in Redwood City and 184 in Santa Clara, where the company was first founded by Bob Miner, Ed Oates and current chief technology officer Larry Ellison in 1977 under the name Software Development Laboratories.
Although Oracle officials have declined to comment on the layoffs, multiple press releases about the company’s new AI products and deals with the federal government went out the same day as the layoff notices to employees.
On March 31, the company announced a collaboration with NetSuite to “deliver new AI-powered solutions for restaurant operations”, touted its AI-powered Oracle Cloud Federal Financials developed for use by federal agencies, unveiled a new AI platform and expanded AI infrastructure offerings for use by the federal government, and its Defense Industrial Base Isolated Cloud Environment for defense contractors.
In the days since, the company has announced that it has donated computers to an organization aiding unhoused families in Wisconsin on April 3, and the appointment of its new chief financial officer, Hilary Maxson.
“Oracle has built extraordinary momentum at the intersection of cloud, AI, and industry applications,” Maxson said in a press release Monday. “I’m excited to join at this pivotal moment, and I look forward to partnering with Clay, Mike, and the broader leadership team to continue to invest with discipline and to translate this momentum into durable, long‑term value for customers and shareholders.”
Maxson is taking the reins of the company’s finances from Douglas Kehring, who will be staying with the company as an executive VP of operations and shifting his focus to strategy, according to this week’s press release and filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Her base salary — $950,000 annually — is set at the same as Kehring’s was for his previous position.
“Ms. Maxson will receive an annual base salary of $950,000 and will be eligible to receive an annual performance-based bonus with a target of $2,500,000 based on achievement of certain performance metrics, which will be prorated for the period from her start date of April 6, 2026 until Oracle’s fiscal year end on May 31, 2026,” chief legal officer Stuart Levey wrote in SEC filings Tuesday.
Other benefits in Maxson’s compensation package include up to a quarter million in relocation costs for up to a year following her start date, as well as an equity grant valued at up to $26 million.
