Oracle strolled along in its fourth quarter, posting results best described as decent. Oracle's revenue rose 9 per cent year-over-year to $3.1bn. This came on a 12 per cent increase in software sales to $2.5bn and a 4 per cent decline in services revenue to $558m. Net income in the fourth quarter rose 15 per cent to $990m, which compares to $858m in the same quarter a year ago.

The story for the full fiscal year was not much different. Oracle posted a 7 per cent increase in revenue to $10.2bn with net income surging 16 per cent to $2.7bn. For the full year, software revenue moved higher 12 per cent to $8.1bn, while service revenue again hurt the company, falling 8 percent to $2.1bn. Oracle stated that a 38 per cent operating margin for all four quarters was an all time company record.

"Operating income was $1.4bn in the fourth quarter and $3.9bn for the full year," said Oracle's Chairman and CFO, Jeff Henley. "That's the best operating profit we've ever delivered; even better than our best year during the Internet bubble. We had a very strong finish to a very good year."

Since Oracle launched its 10g database product 6 months ago, database sales have been growing at a rate of 15 percent, the company said.

"We're still early on in the adoption cycle but the Oracle 10g database is off to a fast start," said Oracle Chief Larry Ellison. "The market is just beginning the move to databases and application servers running on Grids of low cost computers and Oracle is leading the way."

Investors appeared unmoved by Oracle's results in the after-hours markets. Shares of Oracle were down more than two per cent to $11.41, at the time of this report. ®

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