Oracle posts strong first quarter

Oracle handily topped expectations for both first-quarter earnings and revenue as the company said its hardware business "grew faster than expected".

The company reported first-quarter earnings of US$1.4 billion, or 27 cents a share, on revenue of US$7.5 billion, up 48 percent from a year ago. Non-GAAP earnings were 42 cents a share. Wall Street was looking for earnings of 37 cents a share on revenue of US$7.3 billion.

According to Oracle, both the software and hardware businesses performed better than expected. New co-president Mark Hurd previewed Oracle OpenWorld--"Next week at Oracle OpenWorld we will announce two new high-end systems that combine Sun hardware with Oracle software"--and also touted Oracle's R&D spending for the year. As CEO at Hewlett-Packard, Hurd was knocked for scrimping on R&D.

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