Oracle Database Revenue Fell in First Quarter

The New York Times reported last week that Oracle's revenue from licenses for new software fell 6.7 percent in first quarter 2003 from the same period a year ago. The decline appeared to be greatest in Oracle's database business, where it competes with Microsoft and IBM. License revenue for the database unit was down 7 percent from a year ago, to $408 million. Oracle's other software products had new license revenue of $102 million, down 4 percent from the same quarter in 2002.

Oracle attributed the drop to unexpectedly slow sales in August and the disruptions from reorganizing its North American sales force. Oracle had projected growth in revenue from licenses for new software of 2 percent to 12 percent, after reversing a long trend of declines with a gain in the previous quarter. Wall Street traders reacted to the news by selling other technology stocks last week.