Redundancies at leading tech firm
The computer technology company Oracle is making 2,500 staff redundant worldwide, a move that is likely to have a significant impact on its Front Porch Digital department.
Oracle bought Front Porch Digital in 2014 (detail from Front Porch Digital’s marketing material pictured), taking on the staff and the media content storage management systems it develops, including the DIVArchive used by BBC Studioworks and Discovery Communications.
The job cuts at Oracle, revealed in a San Francisco-based newspaper, The Mercury News, last week, are said to cover various divisions and locations, particularly within its hardware teams.
Broadcast has since learned that jobs within the Front Porch division are likely to go as part of the workforce reduction.
Additionally, Oracle has culled its stand at this week’s IBC show in Amsterdam where it was due to be in hall seven of the RAI exhibition centre. A spokesperson for IBC confirmed the cancellation.
Oracle has so far declined to comment on the job cuts, although it has made public plans to “rebalance” its workforce in favour of software rather than hardware.
In August the company announced it is hiring more than 5,000 new engineers, consultants, sales and support people for its cloud business.
The Oracle DIVArchive manages tiered storage and LTO tape archives. Applications include disaster recovery. Other media products include the browser-based MAM tool DIVAdirector and the DIVA Cloud Service.
Oracle’s Front Porch team also develops Lynx, a media-grade cloud distribution product, and Samma which is used for converting media content from analogue to digital.
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