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

To: Larry Brew who wrote (5978)	3/9/1998 7:07:00 PM
From: mike zeltser	Respond to of 19080

One more time: 03/06 00:40 Oracle <ORCL.O> sees no surprises in Q3 results By Kevin Morrison SYDNEY, March 6 (Reuters) - Oracle Corp chief operating officer Ray Lane said on Friday that he does not expect the U.S. database software group to surprise Wall Street analysts with its third quarter results due next Thursday. "Last time we came in four (U.S.) cents under the market. I don't expect to surprise the market this time," Lane told Reuters after announcing a A$48 million investment in Australia. Analysts expect Oracle, the world's second largest software company, to report 20 U.S. cents a share for the third quarter, which ended February 28, according to Zacks Investment Research. Oracle's second quarter profits rose 4.5 percent to US$187 million, or 19 U.S. cents a share, from US$179 million, or 18 cents, in the same quarter a year earlier. Wall Street had expected Oracle, based in Redwood Shores, California, to earn 23 cents a share in the second quarter. The company blamed slowing sales in Asia for the poor second quarter performance. The second quarter result also showed up for the first time the impact of Asia's currency turmoil, which has mainly affected Thailand, Indonesia and South Korea. Asked about the Asian currency impact on the third quarter result, Lane replied: "It should be greater, because the Asian currency effect did not occur until late in the second quarter, but this time it has an effect for the whole of the quarter." Asia accounts for about 15 percent of Oracle's business. Derek Williams, senior vice-president for Oracle Asia Pacific, said the company was facing tougher market conditions in Thailand, Indonesia, South Korea and Malaysia, while the markets in Taiwan, Hong Kong, China, Australia and New Zealand were performing well. Lane told reporters Oracle had stopped hiring in its tougher Asian markets and was starting to take expatriates out of Indonesia and may look at reducing staffing levels in Indonesia. Oracle employs about 4,600 people in Asia-Pacific, with Japan and Australia among its major markets in the region, which employ 1,600 people and 800 respectively. On Wednesday, the world's largest chipmaker Intel Corp <INTC.O> issued a profit warning on its first quarter results, which led to a market sell-off in high-tech stocks and fueled fears of slowdown in personal computers (PC). However, Lane said he saw no slowdown in PC demand and expected demand to increase as the price of PC's fall. He said PC makers were looking at cutting their costs, and the the lower cost PC's were designed around less expensive microprocessing chips made by Cyrix <NSM.N> and Advanced Micro