Oracle, the world's second-largest software maker, last night reported flat fourth-quarter profits due to slightly lower revenues.
The company, which employs about 1,000 people in Dublin, had net income of $855 million (€992 million), or 15 US cents per diluted share, down from a year ago when net income was $925.9 million, or 15 US cents per diluted share.
Revenues were $3.26 billion, down from $3.37 billion a year ago.
Analysts, on average, had expected Oracle to earn 14 cents a share on sales of $3.4 billion, according to Thomson Financial/ First Call. The company had forecast per-share earnings of 15 cents for the quarter. For the full fiscal year, which ended May 31st, Oracle earned 44 US cents per share on $11 billion in revenue. That was good enough to beat earnings expectations by a cent and meet revenue estimates.
The results came as Wall Street firm Salomon Smith Barney forecast that the 500 biggest US companies will see second-quarter profits tumble by an average 18 per cent from the same period a year ago.
The drop in earnings per share for the companies in the Standard & Poor's 500 index will be "similar to the earnings declines posted at the trough of the last recession", said Salomon Smith Barney economist Mr Steven Wieting.
