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Oracles revenues for new application licenses jumped 65 percent in the companys first fiscal quarter, driving a 28 percent increase in earnings per share compared to the same quarter last year.
Oracle President Charles Phillips said Sept. 20 that the Redwood Shores, Calif., company is grabbing market share from SAP in the applications space. While Oracles new license sales grew 65 percent, SAPs jumped 18 percent, he said in a statement.
“We like our growth strategy of expanding into high-end, industry-specific vertical software as opposed to SAPs growth strategy of moving down market to sell software to small companies,” Phillips said.
The company also saw a 23 percent increase in license revenues for its database and middleware offerings, pushed in part by the release of the companys 11g database earlier this year. Taking a shot at IBM, Oracle CEO Larry Ellison said the company plans to take on IBM in the middleware market.
“Oracle passed IBM to become the No. 1 database company a long time ago,” Ellison said. “If we continue to grow our middleware software business at the same rate we grew it this quarter, Oracle will challenge IBM for the No. 1 position in middleware by the end of this year.”
Revenues in the first quarter were up 26 percent, to $4.5 billion, while quarterly net income was up 25 percent, to $840 million. Total software revenues increased 26 percent, to $3.5 billion, with new software license revenues up 35 percent, to $1.1 billion. Services revenues were up 25 percent, to $1.1 billion, over the same quarter last year.
“We reported new software license revenues up 35 percent, the strongest growth of any quarter in 10 years, and that software sales growth is translating nicely into EPS growth,” said Safra Catz, Oracle president and chief financial officer. “Weve now completed 13 quarters of our five-year … growth plan of 20 percent per year, and we are delivering earnings growth well ahead of that target.”
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