Oracle Corp on Thursday posted a higher quarterly profit on stronger-than-expected new software license revenue and said it was taking share from rivals such as SAP AG and IBM.
The world's biggest database software maker, which issued a profit forecast for the current quarter in line with Wall Street forecasts, also said it would spend an additional $1 billion each quarter in stock buybacks during 2007.
Oracle Chief Financial Officer Safra Catz said world-wide demand for its database software and business applications that help companies automate everything from human resources to accounting to inventory management fuelled the results.
The Redwood Shores, California-based company generates most of its revenue from those products but has made a huge push into the market for business-software applications led by SAP AG of Germany. For the fiscal fourth quarter net income rose to $1.3 billion, or 24 cents per share, from $1.0 billion, or 20 cents per share, a year ago.
Excluding items, the company said it posted a per-share profit of 29 cents. Analysts on average were forecasting a per-share profit of 28 cents, according to Reuters Estimates. Revenue rose 25 percent to $4.9 billion as sales of business-management software and its flagship database software posted gains.