Oracle quarterly profit before items rises

SAN FRANCISCO - Oracle Corp has posted a quarterly profit before items that rose sharply, driven by its purchase of PeopleSoft.

Oracle said net income for its first fiscal quarter ended August 31 rose to US$519 million ($758.32 million), or 10 cents per share, from US$509 million, or 10 cents per share, a year ago.

Net revenue rose to US$2.77 billion from US$2.22 billion and appeared to fall short of Wall Street expectations of US$2.94 billion.

Excluding items, Oracle said it had a per-share profit of 14 cents, matching the average expectation, according to Wall Street analysts polled by Reuters Estimates.
New license revenue of its applications business programmes rose 84 per cent, Oracle said. License revenue is closely watched by analysts and investors as it points to profit growth over time and leads to license renewals.

Shares of Oracle, which is in the process of acquiring rival Siebel Systems Inc for nearly US$6 billion, fell 4.6 per cent to US$12.90 in extended Inet trade. In regular trade, the stock rose 23 cents, or 1.7 per cent to close at US$13.52. So far this year, the stock is up slightly more than 2 per cent.

- REUTERS