Oracle bucks gloom with dividend

Software vendor in generous mood after unexpectedly solid Q3 results

Larry Ellison: Oracle's profit growth is a tremendous achievement

Oracle has declared its first ever quarterly dividend after posting stronger-than-anticipated third quarter results.

Q3 revenues on a generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) basis rose 2 per cent year on year to $5.5bn (£3.8bn), while GAAP net profits slid by one per cent to $1.3bn.

However, the business applications giant stressed its results were “dramatically reduced” by the strengthening US dollar. On a constant currency basis, GAAP revenue rose by 11 per cent while GAAP net profit increased by 14 per cent.

Oracle also announced it would cough up a dividend of five US cents per share – its first quarterly dividend since the firm floated in 1986.

Oracle President Charles Phillips said: “If you look past the effect of exchange rates, our new software license revenues for this quarter were higher than our new software license revenues for Q3 of last year.

“Achieving constant currency growth in new software license sales in this very challenging economy shows that we continue to beat our competitors in both technology and applications.”

Oracle chief executive Larry Ellison hailed the firm’s profit growth as a “tremendous achievement in the face of the serious slowdown in the world economy”.