Independent Oracle consultancy Rocela said that Oracle’s fourth quarter earnings announcement defied analyst estimates with an impressive execution across its entire portfolio.
The consultancy believes that Oracle’s strong financial performance is impressive, despite evidence that many large enterprise clients are holding back on multi-year investments until Oracle’s product roadmap is clarified.
In the fourth quarter, Oracle’s revenues grew 39%, to $9.51bn, with net income rising 25%, to $2.36bn. The company also reported a 14% increase in new software license revenue, and gains in operating margin of $406m from Sun’s legacy business. The acquisition of Sun MicroSystems in January this year has had a positive impact, adding $1.83bn in hardware system sales alone.
Rocela said that the lack of certainty surrounding Oracle’s roadmap is compounded by a continuing problem of enterprises not fully understanding their licensing estate. Its recent poll found that 80% of large blue chip companies still don’t have a high level of confidence in their license compliance position.
Martin Mutch, CEO of Rocela, said: "In our day-to-day advisory engagements with large enterprise organisations, we have seen a reticence to commit to large multi-year Oracle investments – the need for clarity in Oracle’s roadmap is an important factor in their decision making process.
"As the market evens out post recession and Oracle’s roadmap becomes clear, we’re hoping to see an increase in customer confidence return to the marketplace with large enterprise organisations making significant investments in Oracle. In the meantime, end users should use this time to arm themselves with a more comprehensive understanding of their Oracle license position."
