Oracle Data Cloud division lays off staff

In 2019, after five years of acquisitions and billions of dollars in investment in advertising software and real-time tracking of web users, Oracle, facing questions about the practices of Data Cloud, its advertising software division, began laying off staff. The reason may have been partly financial: analysts estimate that in 2018 Data Cloud earned only $500 million of Oracle's $40 billion in revenues. Other factors include the Cambridge Analytica scandal, which led Facebook to tighten up access to its systems and imposed increased requirements for consumer consent. As a result, Oracle managers, who before the story broke had sometimes done as much as 40% of their business on Facebook, began pushing customers towards other social networks such as Twittter and Pinterest. Europe's General Data Protectio Regulation also halved the list of companies supplying Oracle with profile data. In November 2018, Privacy International listed Oracle among its seven GDPR scofflaws, a claim the company denied.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-02-06/oracle-didn-t-see-the-data-reckoning-coming
Writer: Nico Grant
Publication: Bloomberg Businessweek