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To: Murrey Walker who wrote (56646)	1/7/2003 5:42:12 PM
From: stockman_scott	Respond to of 65232

Oracle Would Weigh Dividends if Tax Repealed 1 hour, 33 minutes ago January 7, 2003 PALO ALTO, Calif. (Reuters) - The chief financial officer of Oracle Corp.(NasdaqNM:ORCL - news) said on Tuesday the software company would consider paying dividends if a White House plan to eliminate taxes on such payments is approved by Congress. "If in fact ... that proposal of no tax on dividends became law ... we'd certainly have to reconsider our policy," Oracle CFO Jeff Henley said in a Webcast from the Morgan Stanley Software, Services, Internet & Networking conference in Scottsdale, Arizona. "I don't want to predict exactly what our board of directors would do, but I think it would have a significant impact on our thought process," Henley said. Since the early 1990s Oracle, the world's No. 2 software company, has used its excess cash to buy back stock, seeing that as more tax efficient than paying dividends, Henley said. Oracle wrapped up its fiscal second-quarter on Nov. 30 with $5.48 billion in cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments. The company's revenues have been declining for the past seven straight quarters, but it is now forecasting flat to slightly higher sales for the current quarter ending in February. Oracle's shares closed up 73 cents at $12.69 on Nasdaq. The stock has lost about one-fourth of its value over the last 52 weeks. Hardware and software giant International Business Machines Corp.(NYSE:IBM - news) and publishing software maker Adobe Systems Inc.(NasdaqNM:ADBE - news) already pay dividends. Software giant Microsoft Corp.(NasdaqNM:MSFT - news), which is sitting on billions in cash, has said it has no plans to pay dividends. news.yahoo.com