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Oracle shrugs off recent concerns in the financial market

Oracle shrugged off concerns on Thursday that an imploding financial sector and slowing global economy would hamper technology spending, while reporting financial results that cheered Wall Street analysts.

“It is a real nothing special quarter,” said Safra Catz, Oracle’s president.

The business software maker closed large deals at usual rates last month, Catz said.

Given recent concerns, Oracle provided some reassurance.

“Our exposure to banking customers is in the low-single digits,” Catz said. “Our exposure to US banks is even lower.”

She said Oracle had assessed the amount of business it did with some of the troubled companies on Wall Street and did not think their issues had any material impact on sales.

Shares of Oracle rose US$0.65 to US$18.75. They rose US$1.15, or 6.1 percent, in after-hours trading.

Oracle reported net income for its first fiscal quarter, which ended on Aug. 31, of US$1.1 billion, or US$0.21 a share, up 28 percent from US$840 million a year ago.

The firm said revenue grew 18 percent to US$5.3 billion from the year-ago quarter. Oracle’s new software license revenue rose 14 percent, to US$1.2 billion, below the midrange of its forecast.

“I think the expectations were for a lot worse, and I think this is respectable,” said Brent Thill, a securities analyst at Citigroup.

Some of Oracle’s resilience cited stemmed from its recurring license stream and numerous acquisitions.

“The results underscore our belief that the company is successful at cross-selling into recently acquired companies’ accounts and benefits from an expanded product footprint,” said Adam Holt, a software industry analyst with Morgan Stanley.

Despite management’s confidence, Oracle started to show that changes might affect sales.

“The dollar has strengthened enormously,” Catz said.

Oracle, which does extensive business overseas, has benefited from a weak dollar that makes overseas sales more competitive. It expects that benefit to vanish in the coming quarter.
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