In the first full quarter following its $10.6 billion acquisition of PeopleSoft Inc., Oracle Corp.’s profit easily exceeded Wall Street’s expectations and inched up 3.2 percent, thanks to strong sales of database software in the United States.
Redwood Shores, Calif.-based Oracle reported Wednesday morning fourth-quarter earnings for fiscal 2005 of $1.02 billion, or 20 cents per share, up from $990 million, or 19 cents per share, in the same period last year.
In the period ended May 31, the company reported revenue of $3.88 billion, up 26 percent from the fiscal fourth quarter of 2004.
Excluding certain expenses, including costs related to merging the sales forces of Oracle and PeopleSoft, the company reported a profit of $1.36 billion, up 35 percent from the same quarter last year. The company reported adjusted earnings of 26 cents per share, up from 19 cents per share in the same quarter last year.
Analysts polled by Thomson Financial expected the 42,000-employee company to earn an adjusted 23 cents per share on revenue of $3.89 billion.
Oracle, which spent $40 million on restructuring charges during the quarter, did not break out sales or profits that would have come from PeopleSoft. In a morning conference call with journalists, Oracle President Safra Catz said such a breakout was “irrelevant.”
“We really merged the sales organization entirely,” she said.
Oracle spent $807 million on sales and marketing last quarter, up 30 percent from the same quarter last year.
