Sales staff and consultants working for Oracle in North America were hit hard, say sources, as well as employees who had joined Oracle recently through its . and .

The number of people let go on Friday is unclear. Tim Klasell, an analyst with Thomas Weisel Partners, told Computerworld he thought the layoffs were likely to be in the hundreds or low thousands, rather than the 8,000-figure and message boards.

Oracle employs 84,000 people globally. An 8,000-employee layoff would amount to about 10% of its workforce.

Based on Oracle's history of acquisitions and layoffs, as well as money the company has already publicly said it plans to spend this year on severance, it will likely keep trimming through Spring of 2009.

"I think they're doing this in waves," Klasell said. "It's not great for morale, but you want to make sure you don't cut into the meat."