Reporting storming figures for fiscal 1993 to May 31 (see below), Oracle Corp says it sees continued growth in earnings and profit margins in fiscal 1994, although growth in pre-tax margins is unlikely to approach the rate realized this year, chief financial officer Jeff Henley told Reuter. He expects growth in 1994 will be pretty much a repeat of this year, which would imply that the company would burst through the $2,000m a year mark, forcing Charlie Wang at Computer Associates International Inc to look to his laurels. While pre-tax margins are expected to improve further, Henley said the growth rate will be more modest. Although Oracle continues to be pessimistic about the European economy, Henley said the company expects to do reasonable well overseas – and European licence business is actually bigger than that in the US. In our particular market semgnet there’s still a fair amount of demand, even if the economy is lousy, he said. Oracle’s fourth quarter licence sales grew by 26% year-to-year, and services – support, consulting and education, benefitting from an acceleration in the company’s consulting business, surged 41%. For the full year, growth was 26% and a more modest 29% respectively.Unix and Desktop remained Oracle’s strongest product lines during the fourth quarter: Unix licence revenues increased 30% over the year-ago period, and Desktop licence sales stormed ahead by 90%.
