Oracle lays off hundreds of employees at its health unit Cerner: Report

American software company Oracle on Thursday laid off hundreds of employees, rescinded job offers and cut back open positions within its health unit Cerner, the Insider reported, citing three people familiar with the matter.

The company had acquired electronic medical records firm Cerner for $28.3 billion, its biggest ever deal, in December last year.

According to the report, the layoffs were largely due to Cerner’s challenging work with the US Department of Veterans Affairs, which hired Cerner to replace its homemade medical records with Cerner’s technology.

The laid-off employees will receive severance pay equal to four weeks, one additional week for every year of service and a payout of vacation days, the report added.

In May, another report from the Insider said that Oracle had laid off 3,000 employees at Cerner. Citing a former employee, the report had then said that the layoffs “affected workers across teams, including marketing, engineering, accounting, legal, and product.”

On the other hand, Oracle has been cashing in on artificial intelligence (AI) as its Cohere, a competitor to OpenAI, raised $270 million in a funding round last week. Following the announcement, the company’s founder Larry Ellison edged past Microsoft founder Bill Gates to land the number four spot on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Ellison is now the world’s fourth-richest person, with a staggering $139 billion net worth. Bill Gates’ wealth stands at $133 billion. It’s the first time Ellison is richer than Gates and ranked above number 5 on the list.

Ellison is the largest stockholder in Oracle and owns 42.9 per cent of its shares. The 78-year-old also owns a 1.5 per cent stake in Elon Musk’s Tesla.