Software major Oracle Corp has reported an 18 per cent growth in net income to USD 2.5 billion in the three months period ended February 29,2012,driven by new licence sales. Orcale's strong quarterly performance was driven by sales of new licence revenue,a key measure of software growth. Although,the company offset the weakness in hardware business. "Oracle is on track to deliver the highest operating margins in our history this year. Oracle can achieve these record margins as an integrated hardware and software company because we are focusing on high margin systems where hardware and software are engineered to work together," Oracle President and CFO Safra Catz said. The entity had a net income of USD 2.11 billion in the year-ago period,Oracle Corp said in a statement. The company's total revenues were up three per cent from the corresponding period last year to USD 9 billion during the third quarter ended February 29,2012. Software sales rose 7 per cent from a year earlier to USD 2.4 billion,and revenues from software licence product support grew by 8 per cent to USD 4.1 billion. In contrast,the company's revenues from hardware business were down 16 per cent to USD 869 million. Besides,Oracle has been trying to expand into computer hardware with its USD 7.3 billion acquisition of Sun Microsystems Inc in 2010. Oracle sells databases and big software programs to corporations. The database software is used by firms to store information and process customer transactions. Looking ahead,Oracle expects earnings per share in the range of 62 cents to 67 cents for the fourth quarter.
