In short

A round-up of today's other business news.

Oracle's 25% profits rise

Oracle, the world's third-largest software maker, reported a 25 per cent rise in quarterly profit, boosted by higher-than-expected sales of new software.

The company's revenue and earnings per share excluding items beat expectations, and its shares rose 1.7 per cent to $21.39 in after-hours trading.

"We continue to take applications market share from SAP," Oracle president Charles Phillips said in a statement.

Oracle is the leader in database software, ahead of International Business Machines. It is number two in business applications behind Germany's SAP AG.

Net income jumped to $840 million, or 16 cents per share, for the first quarter ended August 31st, from $670 million, or 13 cents, a year earlier.

Revenue rose 26 per cent to $4.53 billion. Earnings, excluding items such as stock-based compensation expenses and acquisition-related charges, were 22 cents per share.

The results were buoyed by sales of products that were not in its line-up a year ago. Oracle added them after buying Hyperion Solutions, Stellent, MetaSolv and several other software makers over the past year.

Revenue from new software licences rose 35 per cent from a year earlier to $1.1 billion. Three months ago it had told investors it expected new software licences to rise between 20 pe rcent and 30 per cent from the year-earlier period.

Shares of Oracle trade at about 16 times the average outlook for next year's earnings per share, and slightly above the future price-to-earnings ratio for Microsoft, which is 16.

IBM trades at 15 times earnings, and SAP trades at 22 times estimated 2008 earnings. - (Reuters)

Oil surges to $84 a barrel

Oil surged to $84 a barrel yesterday in the seventh straight record-breaking session as companies shut Gulf of Mexico output on forecasts a tropical depression churning through the region would become a storm.

US crude settled up $1.39 at $83.32 a barrel after touching an all-time high of $84.10 earlier. London Brent settled up 62 cents at $79.09 a barrel.

Oil has traded above $80 for the past week in part due to concerns about US supplies after government data showed crude stocks in the top consumer fell for the fourth straight week.

A tropical depression blowing into the Gulf of Mexico exacerbated worries as companies shut offshore oil and natural gas output on expectations it would become a tropical storm.

Energy companies have shut over 360,100 barrels of oil per day, some 27.7 per cent, of Gulf crude oil production and 16.7 per cent of natural gas production on the storm threat, the US Minerals Management Service said yesterday.- (Reuters)

Qatar, Dubai buy into exchange

Qatar and Dubai are now the two biggest shareholders of the London Stock Exchange, holding almost half of the world's third-largest stock exchange.

Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), the investment unit of the Qatar government, has bought 20.86 per cent of the London Stock Exchange (LSE), according to a regulatory document filed yesterday.

QIA acquired 41.7 million shares at £1.585 each, people familiar with the matter said, representing a 12 per cent premium to Borse Dubai's offer for US stock market Nasdaq's LSE stake.

Borse Dubai yesterday agreed to buy a 28 per cent stake in the LSE from Nasdaq at £1.414 apiece. - (Reuters)

Putin against energy 'monster'

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said he is against the creation of a state energy "monster" that would straddle the entire economy, sucking away banking and other resources, the Kremlin reported yesterday.

When asked about a possible merger between state gas export monopoly Gazprom and Rosneft, the country's largest oil firm, Mr Putin said he had heard nothing about a possible merger. - (Reuters)