Oracle Corp has indicated that a stock buy back is a possibility in light of its recent financial performance, according to investment bank Morgan Stanley Co. Oracle president and chief operating officer Ray Lane met with Morgan Stanley analysts to discuss the company’s financial performance for the second quarter. The Redwood Shores, California database giant six month net income was down 33% to $195.8m (CI No 3,307) and was followed a day later by a record 29.2% nose dive of its share price down to $22.9375. Oracle says it’s just a temporary set back. Lane told Morgan Stanley that it has suffered from a drop in growth in Japan in the second quarter, which fell from around 60% to just 30%. The company regards the Japanese market as having the strongest management team within the organization and is hopeful it will be able to make changes to turn itself around. Oracle has seen increasing competition from Microsoft Corp in what it had previously regarded as a safe market. Oracle saw its low-end database dominance grabbed from the software giant, but says prices are no longer deteriorating and it will recover its low- end share when a new General Business division that will cater for companies with revenues less than $500m, kicks in to action. Lane believes Oracle’s mid to high end database business has remained intact. Oracle has suffered in the last quarter from a huge drop in its federal government business that is down 50% and the company is not expecting to be able to do a quick repair job. It has also seen a 45% drop in its telecommunications business, Lane justifying this as a result of having contracts with most major telecoms players, who are content to sustain the database they have in place. However, Oracle believes business outside of this areas has remained healthy and hopes the database business will grow by between 20% and 25% in the coming two to three quarters.
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