Oracle said to axe 200 Beijing jobs

Move comes amid concerns US firms reshore their operations

US-based computer technology company Oracle Corp plans to lay off around 200 research and development staff at its Beijing office due to strategic restructuring.

According to one of the company’s staff who declined to be named, the employees received an email from the head of the business unit on Friday, and were asked to leave before March 31.

In the email, Bill-Nesheim, vice-president of Solaris Platform Engineering, wrote: “Oracle is refocusing more R&D efforts on cloud computing ... Due to this restructuring, some product teams in some markets will be eliminated ...”

The PR officer at Oracle’s Beijing office, however, said she had no idea about the layoffs.

Charlie Dai, principal analyst at Forrester Research Inc, said the Oracle layoffs are mainly a result of the company’s restructuring

Oracle is refocusing more R&D efforts on cloud computing ...” Bill Nesheim, vice-president of Oracle’s Solaris unit

toward cloud computing and better adapting itself to the changing local market.

But that explanation doesn’t make much sense to the employees. “Our positions are still required, since we have been asked to transfer our work to other places outside China,” an employee at the Solaris unit said.

The job cuts were announced only one month after Silicon Valley opened its arms to US presidentelect Donald Trump.

These moves come amid concerns that Trump’s policies will encourage more US manufacturers and hightech companies to withdraw their business from countries including China.