Oracle Trims Headcount Again While Ellison Scraps $7.5 Billion Share Sale

Oracle is cutting jobs again after shedding about 21,000 roles in fiscal 2026, as restructuring costs rise to $2.8 billion and capex surges.

Oracle has launched a fresh round of layoffs, with affected staff receiving termination notices by email early Monday morning, effective immediately. The cuts follow a bruising fiscal 2026 in which the US software group shed roughly 21,000 positions — about 13% of its workforce — leaving headcount near 141,000 by the end of May.

Multiple departments are said to be in scope this time, with some units facing reductions exceeding 10% of staff, according to media reports. Departing employees are reportedly offered severance of four weeks' base pay plus one additional week for every year of service.

Restructuring Bill Grows by $700 Million

Financing the ongoing overhaul does not come cheap. Oracle has raised its projected restructuring costs to about $2.8 billion, a $700 million increase over earlier estimates — a figure Reuters also flagged as tied to further job cuts.

The squeeze is visible in the cash flow statement. Free cash flow came in at negative $5.4 billion for the first quarter of fiscal 2027, which closed at the end of August. Capital expenditure alone hit $28.5 billion in the quarter, more than triple the $8.5 billion spent a year earlier. Management expects capex of $90 billion to $95 billion for the full fiscal year, and intends to raise roughly $40 billion in fiscal 2027 through debt issuance and equity offerings to fund the buildout.

Cloud Demand Outpaces the Cost Story

For all the spending pressure, the operating picture has bright spots. Revenue climbed about 30% to $19.3 billion in the first quarter, powered by 121% growth in cloud infrastructure. The order backlog swelled to $664 billion, a substantial chunk of it tied to new contracts for AI cloud services. Reuters reported that the top line beat Wall Street expectations on the strength of that AI-cloud demand, and that cash burn was lighter than feared — a detail suggesting Oracle is managing its aggressive investment pace better than initially assumed.

The market, however, has been slow to reward the strategy. The stock changed hands at EUR 124.06 on Tuesday, down about 1.0% on the day. It sits 56% below its 52-week high set last September, yet remains 1.4% above its 50-day moving average of EUR 122.34. Year-to-date, the shares are off 27%, including a 2.9% slide to EUR 121.62 in the prior session.

Ellison Pulls the Plug on 50 Million Shares

Against that backdrop, Larry Ellison made a move that may carry more signal than any quarterly print. The co-founder and executive chairman cancelled his plan to sell up to 50 million Oracle shares — a program originally approved in June. The decision, announced just days ago, means the company's largest shareholder will not part with stock from that arrangement for now.

Read cynically, the retreat makes sense: with the price this weak, a sale would hardly be attractive. Read differently, it suggests the patriarch still believes in his own story even after months of heavy declines. The two interpretations are not mutually exclusive.

Analysts are similarly divided in emphasis. BMO Capital Markets set a new price target of $195 in mid-September, well above current levels and pointing to confidence in the medium-term trajectory. Argus Research, for its part, reaffirmed a buy rating. Such calls are not blueprints, but they do indicate that professional observers weight the substance behind the numbers differently than the share chart does.

What emerges is a company in transition: heavy investment, heavy costs, and resilient demand in its core AI-cloud business. Whether the $700 million in added restructuring charges translates into sustainably lower expenses — or merely the first in a longer string of one-off items — is the question that will decide when the gap between fundamentals and price finally closes.