Oracle profit meets estimates as customers start buying again

Oracle Corp. reported third-quarter profit Thursday that met analysts’ estimates after customers bought programs they had delayed purchasing during the recession.

Profit before acquisition and some other costs was 38 cents a share in the period ended Feb. 28, the company said. Analysts in a Bloomberg survey estimated 38 cents on average. Including deferred revenue from Sun Microsystems Inc., which Oracle acquired in January, sales were $6.47 billion. Analysts estimated $6.32 billion.

Chief Executive Larry Ellison, 65, has spent $41.8 billion buying 62 companies since January 2005. Each purchase added customers, and Oracle seeks to sell them almost every kind of software a company might want, from databases to middleware to business applications. License sales rose to $1.72 billion as companies renewed spending.

“Oracle is benefiting from an economic rebound,” said Sarah Friar, an analyst with Goldman Sachs Group Inc. in San Francisco.

Net income fell to $1.19 billion, or 23 cents a share, from $1.33 billion, or 26 cents, a year earlier. Revenue before adjustments increased to $6.4 billion.

With the $7.4 billion acquisition of Sun, Oracle gained the fourth-biggest maker of server computers, marking Oracle’s entrance into the hardware market. Oracle has said it will get out of Sun’s low-margin, high-volume server business -- focusing instead on more profitable, high-performance servers.

Shares of Oracle, based in Redwood City, Calif., rose 28 cents to $26.04 before the earnings release.