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Oracle Corporation

5/20/2013, 8:12 AM ET

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Thursday, May 16, 12:16 PM Cisco JV partner EMC (EMC +4.5%) joins the list of companies rallying in response to Cisco's FQ3 beat and guidance. Cisco mentioned on its earnings call integrated hardware solutions such as Vblock (offered by the Cisco/EMC VCE JV) are driving demand for its UCS servers - Cisco's UCS unit saw 77% Y/Y rev. growth. All in all, it's a good day for enterprise IT names, who are happy to receive some good earnings news after getting plenty of bad news (I, II, III, IV). HPQ +1.7%. IBM +1.3%. ORCL +1.3%. VMW +2.6%. TIBX +4.1%. CTXS +3.9%. CRM +3.8%. JIVE +4.1%. NTGR +2.7%. CVLT +2.6%. INFA +3%. (others rallying: I, II) 1 Comment [Tech, On the Move]
Wednesday, May 15, 1:23 AM IDC cuts its 2013 IT spending growth forecast to 4.9% from 5.5%, citing macro issues and weak PC demand; 2012 growth was 5.6%. Gartner, which includes a bigger array of products/services in its numbers, forecast 4.1% growth last month. IDC now sees U.S. software spending (MSFT, ORCL) growing 6%, down from a prior 7%. Storage hardware revenue (EMC, NTAP) is only expected to grow 2.4%, down from 2012's 6.1%, and carrier spending on networking gear (CSCO, JNPR, ALU, CIEN) is expected to grow just 1.1% vs. 5.8% in 2012. Recent earnings reports and warnings (I, II, III, IV) help explain the subdued outlook. 2 Comments [Tech]
Tuesday, April 23, 12:04 PM Salesforce (CRM +2.5%) integrates its offerings a little more by launching Social.com, an app for its Marketing Cloud platform for creating/managing social media ad campaigns. The product, which Salesforce claims is the first solution to integrate social media advertising and monitoring, complements the monitoring tools acquired from Radian6, and the publishing tools it acquired from Buddy Media. Salesforce, which competes with ORCL and CTCT in this space, also promises integration with its flagship CRM software. The announcement comes after Marc Benioff outlined plans to integrate Chatter with Salesforce's CRM software. Comment! [Tech]
Monday, April 15, 3:59 PM Oracle (ORCL) files a mixed securities shelf. The software giant has been acquisition-hungry as ever lately (I, II, III), with cloud and telecom software especially piquing its interest. Is it laying the groundwork for additional purchases? (S-3) Comment! [Tech]
Monday, April 8, 7:04 PM Only 41% of SAP software implementations in 2012 relied on Oracle (ORCL) databases, estimates Gartner - it thinks the other 59% used Microsoft's (MSFT) SQL Server. Oracle's share is down from an estimated 65% 5 years earlier, as SAP stops promoting Oracle and SQL Server improves its feature set. Now, with SAP's Business Suite having added support for the company's Hana in-memory database, Nomura predicts Business Suite/Hana implementations will surge. The firm also sees SAP releasing a cloud service for running Business Suite apps on Hana. 5 Comments [Tech]
Sunday, April 7, 2:01 AM The median total salary for the 100 highest-paid CEOs of major companies edged up 2.8% to over $14M in 2012, while the cost of perks, such as the use of private jets, jumped 19% to 320,635. Oracle's (ORCL) Larry Ellison was the top earner, receiving $96.2M in salary, perks and bonuses, and $90.7M in stock options. Other CEOs in the top 10 include HCA's (HCA) Richard Bracken, Disney's (DIS) Robert Iger, Nike's (NKE) Mark Parker, Starbucks' (SBUX) Howard Schultz and American Express' (AXP) Kenneth Chenault. 4 Comments
Tuesday, March 26, 5:21 PM The fact Oracle's (ORCL) hardware product sales fell 23% Y/Y each of the last 2 quarters, and is expected to fall 13%-23% in this one, isn't stopping it from issuing a hype-filled PR to introduce its latest SPARC M5 and T5 servers. According to Oracle, the M5-32 is "up to 10x faster than previous generations," and the T5-8 offers "a 12x cost performance advantage" over IBM's Power 780 servers (Big Blue will undoubtedly differ). Though many of Oracle's engineered system lines (based on Intel Xeon CPUs) have shown decent growth, demand for SPARC systems (based on proprietary CPUs) has been nosediving. 4 Comments [Tech]
Tuesday, March 26, 9:23 AM "I’m very happy at Oracle (ORCL). No interest," replies Mark Hurd when asked about the Dell CEO job. Blackstone has reportedly viewed Hurd as a contingency option if Michael Dell chose not to support their bid. 1 Comment [Tech]
Monday, March 25, 10:35 AM Oracle (ORCL -1.2%) is acquiring telecom signaling/policy control software leader Tekelec for an undisclosed sum. Look for the price to be higher than the $780M a consortium recently paid for the company. Tekelec's software, used by over 300 carriers, complements Oracle's communications software and Acme Packet's VoIP infrastructure hardware/software, and helps address the need for more advanced policy management tools to handle surging mobile data traffic. Larry Ellison recently suggested more telecom acquisitions are on the way. Comment! [Tech, M&A]
Friday, March 22, 7:12 PM "Our ambition is to be the primary technology provider to the telecommunications industry," said Larry Ellison during Oracle's (ORCL) FQ3 call. The remarks are fueling speculation Acme Packet is just the start of an M&A spree. Meanwhile, some on the Street are worried Oracle's software license woes could lead to pressure for its high-margin services business. Cowen: "For a long time they've held firm on pricing for maintenance ... Now that you have an ever-growing raft of [cloud] alternatives, more and more traditional customers are availing themselves." (previous) 5 Comments [Tech]
Thursday, March 21, 11:39 AM Evercore and CLSA have downgraded Oracle (ORCL -8.8%) following its FQ3 miss and light top-line guidance. The numbers have many worried about the impact of cloud apps ... and not just on application software sales. "As customers move to the cloud, you get a lot of the functionality consolidated ... so you need less hardware and less databases and middleware," says Pac Crest. UBS is still bullish: "Historically when they have a miss it’s a great time to buy." Interestingly, cloud rivals are higher - WDAY +1.4%, CRM +0.4%, N +1.2% - even as other peers follow the tech sector lower. IBM -1.6%. INFA -1.6%. RHT -1.1%. (transcript) 4 Comments [Tech, On the Move]
Thursday, March 21, 9:10 AM Premarket gainers: ITMN +12%. CBLI +9%. ACAD +7%. AFFY +6%.
Losers: CIMT -12%. SCHL -11%. BLDP -9%. ORCL -8%. GES -7%. Comment! [On the Move]
Wednesday, March 20, 5:39 PM After-hours top gainers, as of 5:15 p.m.: FSYS +3%. JKS +2%. HLF +2%. GEVO +2%. CIM +2%.
After-hours top losers: GMO -16%. TLYS -10%. TUMI -10%. ORCL -7%. GES -5%. Comment! [On the Move]
Wednesday, March 20, 5:19 PM Oracle (ORCL) guides on its FQ3 call (webcast) for -1% to +4% Y/Y revenue growth in FQ4, and EPS of $0.85-$0.91. The former is below a consensus for 5.2% growth, while the latter is in-line with an $0.88 consensus. New software license/cloud subscription growth is expected to be in a range of 1%-11%, and hardware product sales are expected to fall 13%-23%. Oracle blames its FQ3 miss in part on deal push-outs and sales execution issues related to new hires. Oracle insists its win rate remains strong, and that the macro situation is unchanged. Shares -7% AH. 6 Comments [Tech, Earnings, Breaking News]
Wednesday, March 20, 4:32 PM Blackstone is "seriously considering a bid" for Dell (DELL), Fortune reports, and is forming "contingency plans" for new leadership in the event Michael Dell remains committed to Silver Lake. Oracle (ORCL) second-in-command and former H-P CEO Mark Hurd is said to be a top choice. Dell +0.4% AH to $14.38. (previous) 6 Comments [Tech, M&A]
Wednesday, March 20, 4:24 PM More on Oracle: New software license/cloud subscription sales fell 2% Y/Y in FQ3, down sharply from FQ2's +17% and below guidance of +3%-13% (is cloud competition a factor?). Hardware product sales -23%, same as FQ2 and worse than guidance of flat to -10% (plunging UNIX server demand). License update/product support sales +7% (same as FQ2). Cloud software sales (boosted by acquisitions) grew "well over 100%." $2.1B in buybacks propped up EPS. Opex -2% Y/Y. ORCL -6.6% AH. CC at 5PM ET (webcast), guidance should be provided. (PR) 1 Comment [Tech, Earnings]

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