Acquisitive Redwood City software giant Oracle reported a profit for its latest quarter that was up 21 percent from a year ago.
Oracle reported earnings for its second fiscal quarter just after the stock market closed this afternoon. Net income for the three months that ended Nov. 30 was $967 million, or 18 cents a share, the company said, while revenue was up 26 percent to $4.2 billion.
The company’s business has grown from a multibillion-dollar series of deals that included acquiring rivals Siebel Systems and PeopleSoft. “Our applications acquisition strategy has strengthened our competitiveness in several industries including retail, banking, telecommunications and utilities,” Oracle Chief Executive Larry Ellison said in a statement.
Oracle Co-president Charles Phillips also claimed market-share gains against rivals including Germany’s SAP, San Jose-based BEA Systems and Armonk, N.Y., tech behemoth IBM.
Excluding certain costs (and who wouldn’t if they could?), Oracle said its profit was 22 cents a share. On that basis, Oracle’s results matched the expectations of Wall Street analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial.
Oracle’s stock closed higher ahead of the report, then dropped in after-hours trading. But don’t feel bad for Oracle shareholders: The stock is up about 47 percent this year, according to calculations by Bloomberg News.
Google is boldly going into a new agreement with NASA. (We’re sorry, the one-time Trekkie in us couldn’t resist that particular space-related cliche.) The deal would put much of the agency’s information on the Mountain View Internet juggernaut’s Web site.
Eventually, that will include real-time weather forecasts, three-dimensional maps of Mars and the moon and tracking of the International Space Station. “This agreement between NASA and Google will soon allow every American to experience a virtual flight over the surface of the moon or through the canyons of Mars,” NASA Administrator Michael Griffin said in a statement.
Google and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Ames Research Center last year revealed their intention to collaborate, and those plans could even include Google setting up office space at NASA/Ames’ Moffett Field campus.
In the announcement today, NASA and Google said they are “finalizing details for additional collaborations that include joint research, products, facilities, education and missions.”
Would you like to edit your MySpace page on the go, even if you’re nowhere near your personal computer? (Dumb question. Of course you would.)
In a move that will make it even easier to post your buddies’ drunken escapades on the Internet almost as soon as they happen, MySpace and Cingular Wireless said they are teaming up to offer MySpace Mobile to Cingular customers.
The application will cost $2.99 a month plus data charges (which we’re guessing could add up fast). MySpace Mobile customers, for example, will be able to take a picture with their Cingular phone then post it right away on their MySpace page.
More technology headlines: Redwood City online photo company Shutterfly wants to get prints to its customers on the East Coast faster. So it’s opening a new plant in Charlotte, N.C., that’s expected to open in the third quarter next year. The company currently sends its customers prints of digital photos and other products from its plant in Hayward.
Irvine chip maker Broadcom said it canceled stock options worth more than $37 million for three unnamed people. According to a Bloomberg News report, Broadcom said the three were responsible for incorrectly dating their stock-option grants. Broadcom said the Securities and Exchange Commission has begun a “formal” investigation, which means the SEC has subpoena power to get information from the company and ex-employees.
San Francisco software maker Embarcadero Technologies said its agreement to be bought out by Thoma Cressey Equity Partners for $234 million has been canceled. The company said it will restate earnings dating back to 2000 to account for backdated stock-option grants.
Silicon Valley tech stocks: Up: Cisco Systems, Hewlett-Packard, Oracle and Applied Materials. Down: Google, Intel, Apple Computer, eBay, Yahoo and Gilead Sciences.
Check in weekday afternoons for the 60-Second Business Break, a summary of news from Mercury News staff writers, the Associated Press, Bloomberg News and other wire services. Contact Frank Russell at frussell@mercurynews.com.
