It is difficult to tell whether there was any rhyme or reason to the Managerial versus IC makeup. What is painfully clear and extremely frustrating is the actual people who made these decisions and who they chose to keep versus those they let go. It was people who were on the inner circle, well inside the know. They played personal favorites and cleared out people beneath them who are threatening from a talent standpoint.
However from a pure mathematical standpoint it appears each org was given a total income number that had to be wiped from the ledger. Who get's clobbered the most in these scenarios? Yep, the +45 crowd who's been at Oracle for quite a while and makes more money. It is the easiest way to make the org younger and reduce the financial burden. I was able to stand back and take a look after a full day to absorb and it was 100% transparent that our particular org is now far far weaker and gives the appearance of one that will be culled from the overall structure within another year. If they could wipe it out without customer lawsuits and further bad press, they would have already done it. They found themselves in this position after several acquisitions that never really materialized. On top of all this, the senior mgt in place has failed upward in a spectacular fashion.