Oracle Profit Up 16 Percent To 509 Million Dollars

REDWOOD SHORES, California, Sept 14 (AFP) - Business software giant Oracle said Tuesday its profit in the fiscal first quarter rose 16 percent to 509 million dollars, thanks to improving sales of its database software.
The profit in the quarter to August 31 amounted to 10 cents a share, a penny ahead of most Wall Street estimates.
Revenues for the period increased seven percent to 2.2 billion dollars.
"Since we introduced our database for grid computing, Oracle 10g, our database new license sales have grown 16 percent, 15 percent and 19 percent in the last three quarters, respectively," said Oracle chief executive Larry Ellison.
"Oracle is first to market with database grid technology and our database sales are trending up."
The company is engaged in a bitter takeover fight for rival PeopleSoft, which has spurned offers from Oracle.