13 June 2003 Database and applications software vendor Oracle, currently at the centre of an acrimonious three-way takeover battle, has unveiled better than expected financial results for its fourth quarter to the end of May.
However, the company’s hefty 31% increase to net income in the quarter — to $858 million — was not matched by a similar rise in revenues, which were up by a less weighty 2%, from $2.77 billion to $2.83 billion.
For the full fiscal year, revenues fell by 2% to $9.5 billion, while net income increased 4% to $2.31 billion.
Overall, however, Oracle chief financial officer Jeff Henley was happy with the results. “This has been a very strong quarter for us, even with the war in Iraq and the SARS [virus] concerns right in the middle of it,” he said.
He added: “In light of the continuing tight IT spending environment, we are particularly pleased that we executed well enough to deliver some top line growth in our business while improving both profits and margins.”
CEO Larry Ellison could not resist taking a side-swipe at rival PeopleSoft, against whom he launched a hostile takeover bid a week ago. “For the quarter our applications new software licence revenues were flat at $246 million… In PeopleSoft’s most recent quarter their applications new licence revenues decreased 39% to $80 million,” he said.
“We believe that our growth and PeopleSoft’s decline resulted in part from… the fact that we are beginning to replace PeopleSoft at a number of major accounts,” he claimed.
