Oracle revenues soar on buying spree

Oracle executives on Thursday claimed vindication for their company’s aggressive spate of acquisitions as the US software maker reported a 25 per cent increase in revenues in the final three months of its latest fiscal year.

The jump in revenues was partly the result of acquisitions but also reflected both strong performance by Oracle and a more robust market for corporate software sales, according to analysts. “Oracle is executing better than it has for some years, but more than anything else we are in a hot IT market,” said Jim Shepherd, an analyst at AMR Research.

“We’re gaining share in all our product lines,” said Larry Ellison, chief executive, pointing to what he called “extraordinary growth in the fourth quarter” that had seen Oracle add nearly $1bn in revenues, to $4.9bn.

Safra Catz, president and chief financial officer, said the growth had come on the back of broad demand from big customers in all markets around the world.

“We can’t split out if it’s the IT spending environment entirely. It doesn’t seem it is,” she said.

Referring to the fiscal period that ended in May “a very critical year for Oracle to show our strategy is taking hold,” Ms Catz added that the latest results demonstrated it was starting to have an impact.

While sales in the company’s core database and middleware business grew by 18 per cent from a year before, sales of applications software climbed by 83 per cent, to $641m. Leaving aside the impact of acquisitions such as Siebel Systems, applications revenue grew by 56 per cent, Oracle added.

The company’s disclosure last week that its earnings would top forecasts had already led to a 10 per cent bounce in its stock price, though the shares have moved only marginally higher since Oracle embarked on its acquisitions spree three years ago. “I actually do think it’s getting noticed,” Ms Catz said of the company’s improving corporate performance.

Oracle said its net income had risen 27 per cent to $1.3bn, or 24 cents a share. On the pro forma basis on which most analysts judge its performance, net income rose 13 per cent while earnings per share climbed 11 per cent to 29 cents, one cent ahead of estimates despite a higher tax rate.