Oracle enjoyed a solid rise in first quarter earnings on the back of its flagship database.

Larry Ellison's shop posted $2.2bn in revenue - a 7 percent year-over-year rise. Net income rose 16 percent to $509m, while earnings per share jumped 18 percent to $0.10.

"Since we introduced our database for grid computing, Oracle 10g, our database new license sales have grown 16%, 15% and 19% in the last three quarters, respectively," said CEO Ellison.

Oracle's new license revenue increased by 7 percent to $563m with 10g doing most of the work. Oracle had previously given analysts a new license growth range between 5 percent and 15 percent, so it came in just above the low-end of this forecast. Analysts tend to look at this figure as a key measure of growth.

While Oracle's database business grew new license sales by 18 percent, its application license revenue fell 36 percent year-over-year. Oracle attributed a large chunk of this loss to a giant software deal with Russia last year. Excluding that purchase, application sales would have come in just 11 percent lower year-over-year.

The poor showing by the application business only emphasizes Oracle's need to complete its buy of PeopleSoft. Oracle is once again in position to make this move after a District Court chucked out a lawsuit by the US Department of Justice that looked to block the deal.

Oracle is sticking by analysts' second quarter expectation that place revenue between $2.58bn and $2.66bn. ®

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