It is always interesting to me how Sun apologists post nonsense like the recent lie that the HW division is some cash printing press, and that the HW employees deserve kuds - all at a time leading up to layoff season. Do these folks actually believe they can get that message into Oracle management, thus preventing themselves from being laid off?
Anyway - let's look at the truth of Oracle's $$ numbers and call BS once and for all about the cretins who post that nonsense.
- Of the $31B in HW revenue since Sun's acquisition - about 70% of that came in the first 5 years after the acquisition. The last 5 years was anemic in comparison, due to the continued shrinkage of that business
- Up until the last quarter of FY17 Oracle reported both HW and HW support $$. Originally after the acquisition the support revenue was approximately %50 of the HW revenue annually. As hardware revenue decreased annually until 2017 (and due to Oracle support cost hikes) the HW revenue became so embarrassingly low that annual support revenues close to surpassing HW.
- Oracle stopped breaking out HW and HW support costs in Q4 FY17 because the HW numbers were so unbelievably bad. At that point in time annual HW revenue was only %40 of what it had been at the time of acquisition. For the math challenged HW employees out there that means it was way less than half of what it was at the time of acquisition
- Assuming that HW revenue is still %50 of total (HW + Support) revenue today (a charitable estimate given the trend from 2011 - 2017 where support was beginning to eclipse HW), annual HW revenue today is approximately %25 to 30% compared to the time of acquisition
- Given that the Oracle HW revenue trend is that it shrinks by roughly half every 5 years, that means that every 5 years we can expect to see the number of HW employees reduced by the same amount. Continued HW layoffs are a given.
So, the reality of the HW situation is tough. It's bad. For shareholders the hardware problem is an issue that can only be addressed by growing revenue in other product lines. Nobody in Oracle management, and I mean nobody, sees HW as anything other than a dying business.
Finally, where to the above $$ financial numbers come from? From Oracle's publicly available financial reporting. If you want to understand this better yourself, go read them. If you work in Oracle's HW org then read them and weep, or better yet leave while you still can. You're not viewed as a long-term asset to the company.