Oracle’s Irish subsidiary sees losses balloon on impairment charge

Enterprise software and hardware giant Oracle’s main Irish subsidiary recorded losses of nearly €500 million last year after recording a €388 million impairment charge.

This marks the second year in succession that the company has reported a large impairment charge; it announced a €318.5 million charge in 2017.

Oracle EMEA Limited, which employs more than 1,400 people in Ireland, reported an end-of-year shareholder deficit of €752 million, as against a €265 million deficit for the previous 12 months, as pretax losses jumped from €450 million to €494 million.

Newly filed accounts show the subsidiary earlier this month sold intellectual property rights to another group company for €198 million. This comes after it acquired IP rights from another vehicle in April for €11.4 million.

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Turnover at the unit fell by 11 per cent last year to €7.6 billion for the 12 months to the end of May 2018. This compares to turnover of €8.5 billion a year earlier.

Directors of the company did not recommend the payment of a dividend, having paid out a €2 billion one in 2017.

Expanded

During the year under review, Oracle EMEA Limited invested €36.5 million in research and development. Staff costs came to €126.6 million, up from €125 million a year ago.

Oracle is the world’s largest provider of enterprise software and one of the biggest providers of computer hardware products and services. In recent years it has expanded its business, in a move that has led it to become a leading cloud computing firm.

Oracle Corporation, which was founded by Larry Ellison, Ed Oates and Bob Milner in 1977, has a market cap of more than $170 billion (€153 billion). It recorded revenues of $39.8 billion last year.