The upheaval in financial markets this summer has not yet had any effect on spending by the technology industry’s big corporate customers, according to Oracle’s most recent earnings.
On Thursday the maker of database and other corporate software reported surprisingly strong growth in what is traditionally its weakest quarter of the year.
Concerns that the credit crisis would dent corporate confidence and hit technology spending have led to greater volatility in tech stocks in recent weeks. A particular cause of unease has been demand from the financial services sector, one of Oracle’s biggest markets.
Responding to a question from an analyst about whether the company expected market turbulence to lead to weaker demand, Safra Catz, co-president and chief financial officer, said: “Pipelines are extremely strong – but we read the same papers you do.”
The breadth of Oracle’s operations, and the foreign currency benefits from the falling US dollar, would provide a degree of stability in a period of greater uncertainty, she said.
Chuck Phillips, co-president, added that while the upheaval on Wall Street would lead to job cuts, there were no signs yet of customers there cutting back on spending.
The software company said that in the three months to the end of August its revenues had climbed to $4.53bn, up 26 per cent from a year before and above market expectations of $4.35bn. Net income rose 25 per cent to $840m, or 16 cents per share.
On the pro-forma basis on which Wall Street assesses the company, earnings reached 22 cents per share, 1 cent above estimates.
Oracle’s figures were helped by the acquisition of Hyperion Solutions, a maker of business intelligence software, and the falling US dollar, which contributed 4 percentage points to reported growth.
“The strength in the quarter was very broad-based, across all product lines,” Ms Catz said.
Revenue from sales of new software licences, which is a closely followed indicator of broader business health, rose 35 per cent to $1.1bn, well ahead of most forecasts.
