Oracle Corp’s profit fell 10.5 percent in the latest quarter as the business software maker absorbed Sun Microsystems and its expenses for building and supporting computer servers.
Still, Oracle’s profit edged past Wall Street’s estimates and its revenue from new software licenses ratcheted higher for the second quarter in a row. That is an encouraging sign that big companies are steadily increasing their spending on new technology projects.
New licenses are key for Oracle, the world’s No. 1 maker of database software, because customers often lock into technical-support contracts that fuel Oracle’s growth for years down the road. Oracle gets more than half its total revenue from those contracts.
Oracle said after the market closed on Thursday that its net income was US$1.2 billion, or US$0.23 per share, in the three months ended Feb. 28. That compares with US$1.3 billion, or US$0.26 per share, in the year-ago period. Revenue jumped 17 percent to US$6.4 billion.
Excluding one-time items, the company earned US$0.38 per share.
The latest numbers include about a month of contributions from Sun Microsystems, the struggling server and software maker that Oracle bought for US$7.4 billion as part of Oracle CEO Larry Ellison’s push to more deeply challenge rival IBM Corp. The deal was completed in January after months of wrangling in Europe over whether the deal would violate antitrust laws.
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