Ellison: “We’re Not Cutting Sun to Profitability, We’re Growing Sun to Profitability.”

Oracle announced its plan to acquire Sun in April of last year. Today, the company finally closed the $7.4 billion deal.

The announcement came just hours before Oracle (ORCL) execs laid out their strategy for the combined companies during a meeting with reporters and industry analysts at Oracle’s Redwood Shores, Calif., headquarters.

The biggest news coming out of that event: Fewer than 2,000 employees will lose their jobs in the wake of the merger–significantly fewer than had been feared. What’s more, Oracle plans to hire 2,000 new employees in engineering, sales and other roles as it gears up to push Sun’s products. As Ellison remarked this afternoon, “We’re not cutting Sun to profitability, we’re growing Sun to profitability.”

Nice to hear. It’s worth noting, though, that Sun (JAVA) did a lot of cutting on its own. It sacked 6,000 employees in November 2008 and another 3,000 last October. So further large reductions may not be necessary, though Ellison recently told the New York Times (NYT) he hasn’t ruled them out.

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Ellison: “We’re Not Cutting Sun to Profitability, We’re Growing Sun to Profitability.”

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