Strong Q2 Powers Oracle

Analysts at Lehman Brothers and Prudential Securities reportedly repeated favorable recommendations on the stock following the news, with Lehman calling the shares a buy and Prudential touting them as a strong buy.

The Redwood Shores, California-based company said net income for the quarter ended November 30th rose 62 percent from a year earlier to US$623 million, or 11 cents per share. Revenue rose to $2.7 billion from $2.3 billion.

"Our applications business is strong and getting stronger," said chief executive officer Larry Ellison. "Oracle's new e-business suite puts every aspect of a business -- marketing, sales, service, procurement, supply chain, manufacturing, accounting, human resources -- everything, on the Internet."

Customers buying the suite, Ellison said, "don't need to do any systems integration."

"This quarter's results prove that we're winning more and more of these best-of-breed battles against Ariba, i2, Siebel and other niche specialists," Ellison continued. "Once a customer uses one of our applications, it's just a matter of time before they move to the entire suite."

Oracle's cheery news came as software giant Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT) saw its shares fall 6 5/16 to 49 3/16 after the company warned of a soft December quarter, its first such warning in 10 years. Other companies in the computers, components and software sector are also seeing tough times as sales of personal computers slow.

"We believe, like many other technology companies, that the current weakness in worldwide economic conditions is resulting in a slowdown in PC sales, corporate IT spending, and consumer online services and advertising," said Microsoft chief financial officer John Connors.