Insiders describe 'complete chaos' at Oracle following layoffs and restructuring

Take a deep breath. It's Friday. I'm Jordan Parker Erb, and today I'm taking you inside the "complete chaos" at Oracle as layoffs and restructuring roil the database giant.

By the way, apologies for the slight delay this morning — we had a technical issue. (Fitting for a tech newsletter!)

Let's get to it.

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1. Oracle insiders describe "complete chaos" from layoffs and restructuring. Earlier this week, Oracle began a sizable layoff, potentially impacting thousands of employees — and those who haven't yet been laid off are scrambling to figure out whether they'll be next.

• The hardest-hit units, current and former employees said, were in the marketing and customer experience divisions. Some marketing teams have seen their headcount slashed by anywhere from 30% to 50%.
• In some cases, they said, managers were given the choice of who would get cut, while others had no say in how the layoffs would affect their teams.
• The Advertising and Customer Experience team was said to have been cut, too. "The common verb to describe ACX is that they were obliterated," one employee said.
• This leaked org chart shows Oracle's cloud leaders after the company's major organizational changes.

A look inside Oracle over the past week.

In other news:

2. The Federal Trade Commission is deepening its investigation into Amazon's Prime sign-up and cancellation process. The FTC sent out subpoenas and other demands for information after Insider reporting. Here's our scoop on what's going on.

3. Axed "Robinhoodies" say they were tipped off to layoffs weeks ago. Former Robinhood employees said they saw signs of belt-tightening — including plans to shrink office space — long before the company laid off 23% of its staff. Five former employees took us behind the scenes.

4. Elon Musk's countersuit against Twitter says the company is operating a "scheme" to mislead investors. Musk argued that he is entitled to drop the deal entirely — and Twitter pushed back, saying the billionaire's story is "implausible." Get the big takeaways.

5. Nike is offering $5,000 employee bonuses for some tech job referrals. Grappling with internal turmoil and a wave of exits, the company announced the new referral program, which has been met with mixed reviews from employees. Here's what we know.

6. Fifteen current and former Apple female employees say the company dismissed claims of misconduct. After the Financial Times reported the HR unit retaliated against some of them after speaking up about the incidents, Apple vowed to "make changes." What we know so far.

7. Startup founders' mental health is crumbling. Dried-up funding and the stress of a turbulent economic year has piled stress on founders who are already trying to do the impossible: build iconic tech companies. Why some founders "are especially not OK."

8. Elon Musk denied that he's planning to build his own private airport in Texas. Local news site Austonia reported last week that an airport could help grow his companies in the region, but Musk said that's "not true" and it "would be silly." Get the full rundown here.

Odds and ends:

9. Mark Zuckerberg is minting an NFT of his Little League baseball card. In a post announcing Instagram's expanded support for NFTs, Zuckerberg shared his own "soon-to-be NFT." See the potential digital collectible of a young Zuck.

10. We broke down how to unsend text messages using iOS 16. iPhone users with iOS 16 will have 15 minutes to unsend a text — and delete it from the recipient's phone. How it works and how to do it.

The latest people moves in tech:

• Per Bloomberg, Apple hired a key Lamborghini exec to work on its electric car.
• Google-backed chip startup Lightmatter just poached Ritesh Jain, a 20-year veteran of Intel.
• Michael Saylor will step down as MicroStrategy CEO.
• After less than a year, Tinder CEO Renate Nyborg will be departing the company.

Keep updated with the latest tech news throughout your day by checking out The Refresh from Insider, a dynamic audio news brief from the Insider newsroom. Listen here.

Curated by Jordan Parker Erb in New York. (Feedback or tips? Email jerb@insider.com or tweet @jordanparkererb.)