Oracle reported fourth-quarter earnings of US$0.46 per share on Thursday, a 24 percent jump over the same period last year. Revenue rose 39 percent to $9.5 billion.
Excluding special charges, Oracle posted earnings of $0.60 per share and $9.6 billion in revenue. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had on average predicted earnings per share of $0.54 and $9.5 billion in revenue, excluding special items.
For the year, Oracle had earnings of $1.21 per share, a jump of 11 percent. Revenue rose 15 percent to $26.8 billion.
New software license revenues, which are considered a prime indicator of growth, rose 14 percent to $3.1 billion in the quarter.
Oracle also sold $1.2 billion in Sun hardware during the period. Excluding special charges, Sun contributed more than $400 million in operating income during the quarter, Oracle President Safra Catz said in a statement. Sun lost money the same period one year ago when it was still independent from Oracle, she added.
The market had been hotly anticipating news on Oracle’s Sun business, as the fourth quarter was the first full one under Oracle’s ownership.
Armed with Sun’s hardware, Oracle has embarked on a strategy that involves selling integrated systems that span hardware, storage, middleware and business applications.
But cost cutting and workforce reductions have helped Oracle make Sun turn a profit. In a regulatory filing this month, Oracle indicated it would be making significantly more Sun-related job cuts than originally announced.
(More to follow.)
Chris Kanaracus covers enterprise software and general technology breaking news for The IDG News Service. Chris’s e-mail address is Chris_Kanaracus@idg.com