Our Earnings Are Good, Larry. But Not 'Hostile Bid for IBM' Good …
I’m worried, Larry … I think it’s imperative that we start to budget and plan.”
Looks like Larry Ellison’s long-suffering accountant won’t have to reach for the Mylanta next time the mercurial CEO maxes out his more-than-a-billion-dollar credit limit. Yesterday Oracle reported surprisingly strong growth in what is traditionally its weakest quarter of the year. The company’s fiscal first-quarter profit grew 25%, easily besting Wall Street analysts’ expectations. This despite the summer’s nauseating market turbulence. And according to Ellison, this kind of financial success isn’t an anomaly, but a trend and one that will continue to keep Oracle growing faster than competitors like IBM.
“We’re doing very well against them,” Ellison said, referring to IBM.
So well, in fact, that it’s threatening to overtake the company as the No. 2 middleware provider.
“We’re growing dramatically faster than our competitors, and our target really is to beat IBM,” Ellison said. “If we maintain our trajectory and IBM maintains their trajectory, we could pass them as early as the end of this year or certainly next year to be the No. 2 player in middleware.”
