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Technology Stocks : Oracle Corporation (ORCL) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: bob who wrote (13413)	3/14/2000 4:40:00 PM
From: Bipin Prasad	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 19080

eps basic .27 Diluted .25 .25 with investment gains and .17 without. InSook

To: bob who wrote (13413)	3/15/2000 11:58:00 AM
From: bob	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 19080

Good piece by the Fool... Wednesday March 15, 11:25 am Eastern Time MotleyFool.com - Fool Plate Special Oracle's Quarter a Pretty Sight By John Del Vecchio Oracle Corp. (Nasdaq: ORCL - news), the world's second largest software company, steamrolled over Street estimates and posted an 80% increase in net income, or 17 cents per share, for the fiscal third quarter. The Wise were estimating earnings to ring in at 13 cents per share according to First Call. Total net income of $763 million included a $432 million gain from the sale of an 11% stake in Liberate Technologies, a network computer spin-off. Oracle has begun a transformation into an e-business, and the results have been seen in the financials. The company's $1 billion cost-cutting plan was achieved in nine months, half the expected time. Operating margins have increased from 20% to over 30% during that same time. Management feels that they underestimated the ability to improve efficiency and cut costs, and operating margins can improve to 40% over the next year. A fully Web-enabled suite of software applications will continue to drive top line growth in addition to direct sales over the Internet. Oracle's performance was strong across all product lines. Database sales increased 32% and applications and customer relationship management (CRM) sales increased 35% and 179%, respectively. Oracle's Chairman and CEO, Larry Ellison, remains bullish on the company's competitive position within the industry. He claims that Oracle continues to steal market share from competitors IBM (NYSE: IBM - news) and Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT - news) in the database market. Additionally, sales in the (CRM) space grew 179% and should double in Q4. Oracle is ambitious about displacing Siebel Systems (Nasdaq: SEBL - news) as the leader in CRM applications. Geographically, the Americas business remains strong, growing at a 45% clip. Asia grew 24%, while Europe was a chink in the armor with only 12% growth in the region. Management expressed disappointment in the European growth rate and attributed the lackluster performance to the strength of competitor SAP (NYSE: SAP - news) in that space. However, chief financial officer Jeff Henley remains vigilant about improving growth rates in Europe over the coming quarters. Among the services sector, support and education grew 29% and 10%, respectively, while consulting service revenues fell 10%. Currently, the consulting business is undergoing a transformation as consultants shift focus from the implementation of enterprise resource planning software to a fully Web-enabled suite of e-business applications. Despite the proverbial "Great quarter, guys" and the subtle plea for guidance in tweaking the quarterly earnings model, the analyst Q&A addressed some important issues. The supremely confident Mr. Ellison was somewhat evasive in responding to questions about Business Online applications hosting, and the development of business-to-business (B2B) exchanges. However, management reiterated that Oracle would host the applications through Business Online rather than farm them out to third-party vendors. This means that Oracle will have tighter quality control and consistency in the applications. Ellison also stated that exchanges can be built in just 30 days and that many new partnerships should be announced during the next quarter. Oracle's main competitive advantage derives from being the only software company to offer a full suite of Web-enabled e-business solutions for procurement, sales and marketing, call center, supply-chain management, and B2B e-commerce. Investors should pay attention to the flow of announcements in the development of B2B exchanges, as well as the growth in hosting applications via Business Online. Hosting applications over the Internet will change the revenue model for many software companies. Rather than earning large, up-front license fees, application service providers will "rent" the applications and earn an annuity-like revenue stream. The quarter was strong, and the market has taken notice. Today, shares have been bid up over 7% in early trading.