Contrary to business analyst’s predictions, Oracle founder Larry Ellison will hire 2,000 employees after buying out Sun Microsystems. Ellison has decided to take advantage of Sun Microsystems background in hardware and hire 2,000 new people in sales and engineering to create and market large computer systems. Ellison believes that the future of computing will combine hardware and software. Oracle is the largest business software company in the world but up to this point has not had any hardware operations. Analysts believe this may be a risky move for Ellison. Software profits are generally higher than hardware because of the high costs of manufacturing components. Oracle was founded in 1977 and is based in Redwood City, California. The company reported $23.252 billion in revenue for 2009.

Oracle will also be laying off a number of employees in the merger, but the number is expected to be less than the 2,000 who will be hired.