Oracle shares jump after profits beat expectations
Oracle's shares jumped more than 2% after it reported better-than-expected earnings in the last three months of the year. The company reported a 37% jump in revenues to $8.8bn (£5.5bn), with net income rising 78%. Oracle also set out a forecast for the current quarter ahead of most estimates and raised its dividend payment to shareholders by 20%.
Oracle is closely watched by analysts for trends in the technology industry. New software license sales, which are a good gauge of future profits, jumped 29% to $2.2bn in the third quarter. Oracle made net income for the quarter of $2.1bn up from $1.2bn a year earlier.
The company is in a battle with rivals IBM, Cisco Systems and HP to provide infrastructure for companies to move to "cloud computing" - the remote storage and handling of data. Last year, Oracle diversified into server hardware with the purchase of Sun Microsystems.
Full story at BBC Technology
