New software license revenue grew 35% to $1.09bn in the quarter, which sailed past the company’s own projection of a mid-20% increase.
Such a large increase in new software sales bodes well for Oracle because it lays the foundation for future revenue streams from software upgrades.
Oracle CFO Safra Catz said, on a conference call, that its quarterly software sales were the biggest since 2000. The strength in the quarter was very broad-based, across all product lines, Catz said.
She also noted that Oracle’s recent first fiscal quarter was historically its weakest because in the northern hemisphere summer is typically vacation time for its customers’ decision makers.
Specifically, applications software sales grew 65% to $376m during the quarter, while sales of middleware and database products rose 23% to $711m.
We continue to take applications market share from SAP, said Oracle president Charles Phillips. Oracle leads the software database market, followed by IBM, but trails SAP in the business applications segment.
For the recent quarter, profit rose to $840m, or 16 cents per share, from $670m, or 13 cents, a year ago. Without stock-option expenses, Oracle would have earned 22 cents, which was one cent higher than analysts’ average targets, according to Thomson Financial.
Total revenue also beat expectations, coming in at $4.53bn, which was 26% higher than last year and beyond the $4.34bn pegged by analysts. Recent sales included $87m or so in revenue from newly acquired companies, including Agile Software, MetaSolve and Hyperion.
Oracle’s share price added 20 cents to close at $21.04 on the Nasdaq yesterday. They edged 10 cents higher in after-hours trading.
