Oracle Reports Drop In Database Sales
By Doug Caverly
Staff Writer
Article Date: 2009-09-17
A worrisome bit of news pertaining to the database industry was released yesterday. Oracle reported some iffy revenue figures for its first fiscal quarter of 2010 (no, that's not a typo - Oracle just runs on an odd calendar), and lack of interest in the corporation's database offerings seemed to be a key reason for the fall.
"Database and middleware" revenues were down 22 percent for the period ending August 31st, according to Oracle's own financial statements. That sort of drop is, needless to say, somewhat radical, and not a great sign for Oracle.
SAP has been implicated in the mess, as well. As reported by Larry Dignan, Safra Catz, Oracle's co-president, said during a conference call, "This is a result of two factors - a very tough year-over-year comparison and the impact of some of our software company resellers, most notably SAP, who is selling less database because its applications business is down 40%."
It's probably not time for everyone who works with databases to panic, however. The first thing to consider is that the problem could be localized; Oracle and SAP might be having issues of their own. Actually, other database companies may have been able to sort of pick up their slack.
The other potential saving grace is that the recession, which was bad and inhibited spending, now seems to be lessening in strength. So hopefully the database industry will be back to normal in no time (assuming it's not already there).
About the Author:
Doug is a staff writer for WebProNews. Visit WebProNews for the latest eBusiness news.