Software Licensing Leads Revenue for Oracle

Oracle (News - Alert) Corp. beat Wall Street estimates lead by revenue from new software licenses.

The company’s profits fell 10.5 percent in the most recent quarter as it absorbed Sun Microsystems (News - Alert).

Software licenses are responsible for more than half of Oracles total revenues, and often come with multi-year technical support contracts.

Oracle's revenue from new software licenses rose 10 percent. The company had predicted it would rise as much as 9 percent. The September-November quarter, which Oracle reported in December, marked the first time in a year that figure had risen.

The company predicted that for the current quarter, which ends in May, that revenue from new software licenses would continue to grow and that total revenue will be up 35 to 40 percent over last year.