Oracle Corp has reported an eight per cent growth in net income to $3.5 billion in the three months period ended May 31, 2012 driven by sales of new software licences.
In a surprised move, Oracle announced its fourth quarter earnings late Monday, which were scheduled for Thursday release.
It, however, didn’t give any reason for the early announcement, but according to media reports the move was expected to be triggered by the departure of a top sales executive.
The company’s total revenues were up one per cent from the year-ago period to $10.9 billion in the fourth quarter ended May 31, 2012, Oracle said in a statement.
Oracle said new software sales, a key indicator of the company’s performance, grew five per cent to $4 billion in the reported period.
However, the company said its revenue from software licensing would have accelerated by 11 per cent if currency exchange rates had remained at the same level as last year.
“Our record-breaking fourth quarter featured several all-time highs for Oracle: new software licence sales of $4 billion, total software revenue of $8 billion, total revenue of $11 billion, and earning per share of 82 cents,” Oracle President and CFO, Mr Safra Catz, said.
Besides, the company also added $10 billion to its existing share buyback programme.
“Oracle also announced that its board of directors authorised the repurchase of up to an additional $10 billion of common stock under its existing share repurchase programme in future quarters,” the company said.
In terms of geographical analysis, Oracle’s quarterly revenues from Asia Pacific region increased from $1.72 billion to $1.83 billion and revenues from Americas operation climbed to $5.77 billion from $5.48 billion.
Although, the company’s revenues in Europe, Middle East and Africa regions tumbled to $3.31 billion in the latest quarter from $3.56 billion in the same quarter last fiscal.
The company’s revenue from the sale of hardware products during the quarter under review fell 16 per cent from the year-ago period to $977 million.