Oracle has already spent $38 million on BEA severances, according to its Dec. 22nd filing, as it , according to state records, and possibly more elsewhere.

Oracle has yet to file a . Alerting the department with Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notifications (WARN) is required by California state law.

However, Oracle has a history of sending WARNs only after layoffs occur. When Oracle announced in January 2005 it would lay off more than 5,000 employees from the recently-acquired PeopleSoft Inc., the state .

Oracle declined to comment. Message boards, blogs and even the microblogging service has been abuzz since Friday about the layoffs, which .

For instance, a Twitter post on Friday apparently by a , wished "to those I've had the pleasure of working with that got laid off today at Oracle. Best of luck and thanks."