Oracle Meets 3Q Expectations

For the quarter ended Feb. 29, the Redwood Shores, Calif.-based company said new database license sales, a key indicator, were up 17 percent to $1.17 million. Overall sales were up 9 percent to $2.5 billion over last year's third quarter, the company said. Analysts had expected earnings to fall in the 11- to 13-cent-per-share range.

Oracle also highlighted sales of its much-touted Real Application Clusters (RAC), which it said had risen 86 percent over the previous year. RAC is sold as an option for most of the company's database SKUs. While the company has been beating the RAC drum for a few years, it has been unclear just how many customers had adopted the technology. RAC costs an additional $20,000 per CPU atop the $40,000 per-CPU price Oracle charges for Oracle 10g Enterprise Edition.

Overall database sales grew 16 percent, Oracle Chairman Larry Ellison said in a statement.

With its recently shipping Oracle 10g Release, Oracle bundled RAC for the first time with its Standard Edition database, a move many hope the company will extend to its pricier Enterprise Edition as well. (See story.)

Oracle may have gotten some breathing room this week with the news that Microsoft has once again delayed its next-generation SQL Server, code named Yukon. That database, which has been under development for at least three years, is now promised for 2005. Microsoft had said to expect it this year. With SQL Server 2005, Microsoft has promised more enterprise-level capabilities to take on Oracle in the enterprise.

Many observers have wondered if Oracle's now 10-month-old quest to buy a very unwilling PeopleSoft has distracted management. Oracle President Chuck Phillips in particular has taken to the road, trying to drum up customer and shareholder support for the hostile $9.4 billion bid.

For continuing coverage on the Oracle-PeopleSoft saga, see CRN.