Despite continued talk of a recession, tech companies are rebounding — and even breaking records. Oracle’s shares leaped to a nine-year high Friday on news of its quarterly earnings. The strong earnings from Oracle and Research In Motion, along with Hewlett-Packard’s multibillion-dollar spending spree and other strong economic indicators, set off a tech-stock rally on Wall Street.
Oracle’s results for the first fiscal quarter of 2011 saw revenues soar 48 percent to $7.5 billion. Operating income was up 10 percent to $1.9 billion, and net income was up 20 percent to $1.4 billion. That led to a 20 percent rise in earnings per share compared to the year-ago period.
Sun: Oracle’s Next Frontier
Oracle CFO Jeff Epstein said the company executed better than expected on both the top and bottom lines for the quarter. Oracle President Safra Catz added that the software business saw strong growth in all regions, with new license sales up 25 percent. The hardware business also saw an unexpected surge, with Sun Solaris servers and Exadata leading the charge.
Oracle brought in ex-HP CEO Mark Hurd to serve as co-president and integrate Sun into the Oracle lineup. Hurd and Oracle CEO Larry Ellison both pushed the Sun and Exadata expectations for the coming quarters. Exadata’s pipeline now exceeds $1.5 billion for the full fiscal year. But many analysts insist Sun needs some attention.
“Next week at Oracle OpenWorld, we will announce two new high-end systems that combine Sun hardware with Oracle software,” Hurd said. “We will invest over $4 billion in research and development this year, so our already-robust product portfolio is only going to get stronger.”
RIM Performs
Despite the fact that RIM is losing market share, the BlackBerry maker’s earnings also helped spur a Wall Street rally. RIM’s second-quarter revenue was $4.62 billion, up nine percent from the year-ago period….