Oracle bounces back with revenue jump

Oracle's fortunes have improved since the previous quarter

Oracle has announced a surge in revenue for the fourth quarter of 2010, helped in part by the completion of the acquisition of Sun Microsystems in January.

Revenues grew to $9.5bn (£6.38bn), up 39 per cent, while software licence sales grew 14 per cent to $3.1bn (£2.09bn).

The vendor said that Sun had generated $400m (£268m) in revenue in the fourth quarter, helping the company dramatically turn its fortunes around after an 11 per cent fall in profits in the third quarter.

Oracle co-president Safra Catz said that the figures give the company increased confidence that it is on track to reach its projected revenue for the coming years.

"Now that Sun is profitable, we have increased confidence that we will meet or exceed our goal of Sun contributing $1.5bn [£1bn] to non-GAAP operating income in [fiscal] 2011 and $2bn [£1.33bn] in [fiscal] 2012," he said.

Charles Phillips, also co-president of Oracle, used the announcement to take a swipe at one of the firm's chief rivals.

"We continue to take large chunks of market share away from SAP. Over the last 12 months Oracle's applications business has grown five per cent on a constant dollar basis, while SAP's business has declined 24 per cent over its previous four quarters," he said.

"This trend has been going on for a long time; Oracle's applications business has grown 60 per cent in the last four years while SAP's business is seven per cent smaller than it was four years ago."

The acquisition of Sun was subject to intense anti-competition concerns in the industry, and the deal was completed only after the European Commission approved the move at the start of the year.