TURNAROUND STORY: Software maker Oracle Corp. said its profit jumped more than 12 percent in the latest quarter as corporations seemed more willing to spend money on new technology projects. Oracle’s revenue from new software licenses rose 2 percent, ending a four-quarter run of declines.
THE NUMBERS: Oracle said it earned $1.46 billion, or 29 cents per share, versus $1.30 billion, or 25 cents per share, a year ago. Revenue rose 4 percent to $5.9 billion.
WHAT’S NEXT: European regulators have held up Oracle’s $7.4 billion purchase of server maker Sun Microsystems because of fears that Oracle would diminish a competing database product made by Sun’s MySQL division. Promises from Oracle appear to have appeased the European regulators, and Oracle said Thursday it now expects the deal to be “unconditionally” approved in January.
