Software company Oracle yesterday said it would be reducing its global workforce by 5,000. The company employs about 900 people in Ireland, but a spokeswoman said there were no details at this stage on what operations might be scaled back.

Following the acquisition of a company called PeopleSoft some job reductions will be needed, said the company over the weekend.

A statement from the company said: "Oracle plans to retain over 90 per cent of PeopleSoft product development and product support staff. The PeopleSoft development team will finish the development and deployment of PeopleSoft version 8.9, and then begin development of the next upgrade to PeopleSoft products, version 9.0. The PeopleSoft support teams, with the assistance of the Oracle support organisation, will continue to support PeopleSoft customers around the world."

Mr Larry Ellison, Oracle chief executive, said: "By retaining the vast majority of PeopleSoft technical staff, Oracle will have the resources to deliver on the development and support commitments we have made to PeopleSoft customers over the last 18 months."

Oracle completed its acquisition of PeopleSoft on January 7th, following the completion of a tender offer in which more than 97 per cent of PeopleSoft's shareholders tendered their shares.