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

To: paul who wrote (10321)	4/5/1999 5:37:00 PM
From: Maverick	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 19080

ML has a LT BUY. Oracle should be accumulated on any drop into the $25-30 range. Excerpts of ML Research: On the positive side, the company was able to manage expenses better than anticipated (+70 basis points over our model), cash did strengthen sequentially (+$431 million), Days Sales Outstanding were stable (68 days) and Deferred Revenues increased sequentially (+$17.7 million). The company indicated that the top line 2Q99 disappointment was a result of execution issues and was not indicative of the breadth of the current 4Q99 pipeline (strong for both Apps and Database) or of demand for Oracle's new products based on its Internet architecture (tremendous interest in the new Oracle 8i database, Sales Force Automation, Call Center and Procurement applications). For long-term investors, we believe Oracle should be accumulated on any drop into the $25-30 range. 3Q99 had a tough prior year comparison especially in the Americas and Database markets. Database and Applications business was sluggish, up 10% and 5.5% versus our 18% and 18.5% estimates, respectively. By geographies, Americas grew 17% (below our estimates of at 28.7%); Europe posted 20% growth and Asia Pacific provided the surprise ahead 25% versus our estimates of 3%. By platform, UNIX grew 6% YoY and even Windows sales moderated to 10% YoY growth. As expected, Oracle showed significant margin expansion in the quarter, operating margins of 19.6%, were 70 basis points better than expected and 140 basis points better than 3Q 98. Margin upside was helped by lesser sales commission accruals than expected in the quarter (on the lower sales numbers). On the balance sheet, cash stood at $2.5 billion, reflecting a $265 million increase from the sale of shares in Oracle Japan. Accounts Receivables days sales outstanding (DSOs) remained level with 2Q99 at 68 days. Oracle management attempted to put a positive spin on its 3Q99 results stressing that: 1) the sales execution concerns (not closing the same % of deals in the pipeline as in the past) were recognized and fixable, 2) the 4Q99 pipeline looks stronger than ever, and 4) that the potential market for Oracle's newest applications for Customer Relationship Management, Sales Force Automation and On-Line Procurement represent a larger market opportunity than ERP.

To: paul who wrote (10321)	4/5/1999 8:21:00 PM
From: Hardly B. Solipsist	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 19080

> technology is now 25 years old and Oracle still goes to bat > with the same old story except they now append the letter i > after Oracle8. 8i is a lot more than a typo. Have you actually looked at the product? Advance word from people using the Java in 8i is that this is definitely NOT another "dud". > If you live in SV i think you can see that in the way people > feel about Oracle. Years ago every hotshot wanted to work > there - now at best theirs an indifference if not hostility > due to the fact that Oracle has never been known as a very > pleasant place to work. I live in SV, and I haven't seen that much change. It's true that ORCL isn't that sexy, but neither is Sun or any other large company around here. Everyone I hear from that wants to take a shot at getting rich wants to work at an internet startup.