More layoffs: Seagate cuts 6 percent; Oracle cuts hundreds, not thousands

It's only been a couple of days since Seagate Technology replaced its CEO and now, as promised, here comes not just a round of layoffs but also some salary slashing for executives and management-level staff at the company. Seagate's news follows rumors this week that Oracle has started slashing jobs, as well.

Seagate said it will reduce its workforce by 2,950 employees, roughly 6 percent of its global workforce, a move that could save the company $130 million annually, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. In addition, the CEO, named executive officers and executive vice presidents will take a 25 percent pay cut while senior VPs give up 20 percent and VPs slash their paychecks by 15 percent. Managers, sales, supervisor and professional employees will see a 10 percent reduction. The company said it expects annual savings of about $80 million from the salary reductions.

Also see: Seagate names Luczo CEO; Watkins out

Over at Oracle, the word is that sales and marketing staffs have been reduced, along with some back office personnel, according to a report by Thomas Weisel Partners analyst Tim Klassel. “Our sense is that the current reduction was well planned and not a hasty reaction to an unplanned event,” he wrote in a research note. The blogosphere buzz is that the layoffs - not confirmed by Oracle - are somewhere in the range of 8,000 but John Paczkowski notes on the Digital Daily blog that his sources say the number is in the hundreds, not thousands.