Oracle reports 11 per cent dive in Q3 profits

Oracle logged a 17 per cent increase in revenue during the quarter

Oracle has revealed a dip in profits in its latest financial results, attributing the fall to the long drawn out purchase of Sun Microsystems.

The software firm logged a 17 per cent increase in revenue for its fiscal third quarter, but an 11 per cent fall in profits.

Oracle chief financial officer Safra Catz explained that the company hopes to start seeing the Sun acquisition's real impact on the bottom line shortly.

"The Sun integration is going better than we expected," she said. "We believe that Sun will make a significant contribution to our fourth-quarter earnings per share, as well as meet the profitability goals we set for next year."

Oracle chief executive Larry Ellison said that some areas, such as software sales, had been consistently strong during the quarter, pointing to gains made against German competitor SAP.

"Every quarter we grab huge chunks of market share from SAP," he said. " SAP's most recent quarter was the best quarter of its year, only down 15 per cent, while Oracle's application sales were up 21 per cent."

Ellison also teased SAP over its recent management changes. "SAP is well ahead of us in the number of chief executives for this year, announcing their third and fourth while we only had one."

Oracle's Exadata storage server system proved popular during the quarter, according to the results, with bookings approaching $400m (£270m).

"Exadata is the fastest growing product in Oracle's history," said Oracle president Charles Phillips.