Oracle to axe more jobs at Sun Microsystems

Oracle Corporation, the world's biggest database software maker is cutting more jobs at Sun Microsystems in Europe and Asia, taking its overall restructuring costs to over $1 billion.

The new round of job cuts was revealed in a regulatory filing yesterday, but the Redwood Shores, California-based Oracle did not say how many jobs would be affected.

But in the filing it did say that that the job cuts is expected to hike the restructuring costs between $675 million and $825 million due to its acquisition of Sun Microsystems, which closed in January 2010. (See: Oracle finally gets the EC nod for Sun Microsystems acquisition)

Oracle had had earlier announced job cuts and had said that it would cost the company an estimated $325 million.

In October 2009, while awaiting the prolonged verdict from the European regulator's probe into its takeover by Oracle, the loss-making computer hardware and software maker Sun Microsystems had said it will cut 3,000 jobs in the next year. (See: Sun to cut 3,000 jobs as EU plays truant)

In a November speech in Silicon Valley, Oracle's chief executive Larry Ellison said that Sun was losing around $100 million a month since rivals like International Business Machines and Hewlett-Packard were picking up Sun's customers, who seemed uncertain about the company's future.

In January, he had also rubbished media reports as garbage, when it was speculated that Oracle may make further cuts at Sun Microsystems after the European Competition Commission finally approved its $7.4-billion acquisition of Sun after a 10-month stand-off.