Oracle profits jump 40%

Oracle announced its second-quarter profits jumped 40 per cent to $384 million as the company benefited from a combination of strong demand and savings from recent cost-cutting measures. ''The growth of corporate intranets and the World Wide Web is driving demand for both the Oracle 8i database and our applications,'' Oracle Chief Executive Larry Ellison said. ''Our early commitment to Internet computing has enabled us to extend our lead in world database market share.''

Oracle Chief Financial Officer Jeff Henley added that he expected the company to remain on track for profit growth. ''We had a great quarter -- a good strong quarter in all our geographic sectors with licensing gains on our database applications and good margin improvement. Everything came together well and basically we are saying that we expect the same going forward.'' ''We think we are in good shape now but we hope to see even more demand come out after Y2K, which has been a bit of a distraction,'' Henley said.

''We're bullish about top-line demand and bullish about the improved productivity that that the Internet is bringing.'' Oracle’s total software license rose 18 percent over last year. Sales of its core database software rose 17 percent to $651 million, while applications software sales jumped 31 percent to $168 million. Service revenues rose 10 percent to $1.4 billion. The company's profit margin climbed to 25.5 percent from 20 percent a year ago. Oracle's stock market value recently topped $100 billion for the first time in its 22-year history.