Oracle eyes boosting pace of stock buybacks

SAN FRANCISCO: Oracle Corp. may soon boost the pace of its stock buybacks and is off to a good start in the current quarter after closing a number of deals, the software maker's co-president said on Monday.

Speaking to a small gathering of financial analysts in New York, Charles Phillips said the company sees opportunities for growth in emerging markets like China and India, more customized software applications and demand for its middleware products.

The scaled-down meeting came after the No. 1 database maker last week abruptly canceled its financial analyst day scheduled for Monday, though Phillips said the delay had nothing to do with current business conditions.

"There was some concern, of course, that with the change in the analysts' meeting or something that we were trying to signal something about the business, so the direct answer to that is no, that's not true," he said. "We actually feel pretty good about the way the quarter has started."

Phillips said the company was still hunting for acquisitions and was more likely to target medium-sized businesses. Oracle in the past year has bought up rivals in a quickly consolidating software market to better challenge industry leader SAP of Germany.

That strategy, however, has weighed on Oracle's stock price, and Phillips said the company would consider picking up the pace of stock buybacks.

"I would say we are predisposed on doing more than we've done over the last year," he said. "I think that directionally that is where we're headed."

Phillips also said India and China -- a country where the company plans to increase its number of offices to 30 from three by the end of the year -- are two areas for growth.

He also said middleware -- software that helps a variety of applications work together as if they were a single system -- marked a large opportunity. That business generated about $800 million in revenue last year and the company has said middleware revenue could hit $1 billion in fiscal 2006.