Business software maker Oracle reported a higher-than-expected revenue in the fourth quarter, boosted by a surge in sales from its cloud business.
Shares of the company were up 2.5 per cent at $39.59 in extended trading yesterday.
Like its rivals such as SAP SE, IBM and Microsoft, Oracle has focused on moving its business towards the cloud-computing model, essentially providing services remotely via data centres rather than selling installed software.
Total revenue from company’s cloud-computing software and platform service rose 49.1 per cent to $859 million in the fourth quarter ended May 31st. The company’s total revenue fell 1 per cent to $10.59 billion, beating analysts’ average estimate of $10.47 billion.
Oracle’s net income rose to $2.81 billion, or 66 cents per share, in the quarter ended May 31st, from $2.76 billion, or 62 cents per share, a year earlier. Excluding items, it earned 81 cents per share, meeting average analysts’ estimate. Up to yesterday’s close, Oracle’s stock had risen 5.8 percent this year. Oracle chairman Larry Ellison said he expects the “hyper-growth” experienced by the company’s cloud business in 2016 will continue for the next few years.
The 39-year-old company, a late entrant into the cloud market, recently acquired cloud companies Textura and Opower.
However, Oracle has come under considerable pressure from nimbler companies in the industry such as Salesforce.com, whose chief executive Marc Benioff has constantly taken potshots at the company. – (Reuters)