December 16, 2010, 4:45 PM — Oracle's net income for the quarter ended Nov. 30 rose 28 percent to US$1.9 billion compared to the same period last year, buoyed by strong software license sales and an improving hardware business, the company said Thursday. Revenue was $8.6 billion, a 47 percent jump.
New software license revenue, a key indicator of a company's performance and the mood of customers, rose 21 percent to $2 billion over the same period last year.
Hardware systems products sales were $1.1 billion. No comparison could be made to the same quarter last year, as Oracle had not yet completed the acquisition of Sun Microsystems at that time.
With the purchase of Sun, Oracle has started selling integrated systems like the Exadata family of database machines and the more recently announced Exalogic, a powerful application server it has dubbed a "cloud in a box."
Customers have been taking to the strategy with aplomb, according to Oracle President Mark Hurd.
"Since joining Oracle I've met with and visited many customers that have expressed a high level of enthusiasm around our strategy of engineering hardware and software that works together," Hurd said in a statement. "That enthusiasm translates into an Exadata pipeline that has now grown to nearly $2 billion. That number is a good leading indicator that customers are planning to increase their investment in Oracle technology."
Executives are expected to discuss Oracle's earnings further during a conference call Thursday.
(More to follow.)
