InfoAnda - Analysis: Analysts worry that something's amiss at Oracle |

Pakistanis angry over detentions in Times Sq. case
Monday, May 24, 2010
ISLAMABAD – Relatives of three men detained by Pakistan for alleged links to the suspect in the attempted Times Square bombing say the men are innocent.
They

Taiwan denies boycotting Australian film festival
Thursday, August 6, 2009

AFP - Thursday, August 6TAIPEI (AFP) - - Taiwan's Beijing-friendly government on Wednesday denied boycotting an Australian film festival amid a row over the e

Merkel's support dips, regional ally resigns International
Thursday, September 3, 2009

By Sarah Marsh and Noah Barkin

BERLIN (Reuters) - Chancellor Angela Merkel suffered a double blow on Thursday as a senior party ally in east German

Minister seeks closure of anti-Berlusconi websites
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
ROME (AFP) - – The Italian government moved Tuesday to close down Internet sites encouraging further violence against Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who

Asian markets mixed after Wall Street rally
Wednesday, March 18, 2009

By ELAINE KURTENBACH,AP Business Writer AP - Wednesday, March 18SHANGHAI - Asia's stock market rally seemed to be running out of steam Wednesday, despite an

Vegas Strip redefined as mammoth complex opens | 17 December 2009
Mexican leftist leader rejects Pena Nieto win, calls for rally | | 31 August 2012
The Globes' and Oscars' new hosts: Dancing at the comedic edge | | 10 January 2013

Chinese University Student Says He Killed Roommate Over Snoring | 4 March 2010

Forum Views () Forum Replies ()

Read more with google mobile : Analysis: Analysts worry that something's amiss at Oracle |

Edition: U.S. Africa Arabic Argentina Brazil Canada China France Germany India Italy Japan Latin America Mexico Russia Spain United Kingdom Home Business Business Home Economy Technology Media Small Business Legal Deals Earnings Social Pulse Business Video The Freeland File Markets Markets Home U.S. Markets European Markets Asian Markets Global Market Data Indices M&A Stocks Bonds Currencies Commodities Futures Funds peHUB World World Home U.S. Brazil China Euro Zone Japan Mexico Russia India Insight World Video Reuters Investigates Decoder Politics Politics Home Election 2012 Issues 2012 Candidates 2012 Tales from the Trail Political Punchlines Supreme Court Politics Video Tech Technology Home MediaFile Science Tech Video Tech Tonic Social Pulse Opinion Opinion Home Chrystia Freeland John Lloyd Felix Salmon Jack Shafer David Rohde Bernd Debusmann Nader Mousavizadeh Lucy P. Marcus David Cay Johnston Bethany McLean Edward Hadas Hugo Dixon Ian Bremmer Mohamed El-Erian Lawrence Summers Susan Glasser The Great Debate Steven Brill Jack & Suzy Welch Breakingviews Equities Credit Private Equity M&A Macro & Markets Politics Breakingviews Video Money Money Home Tax Break Lipper Awards 2012 Global Investing MuniLand Unstructured Finance Linda Stern Mark Miller John Wasik James Saft Analyst Research Alerts Watchlist Portfolio Stock Screener Fund Screener Personal Finance Video Money Clip Investing 201 Life Health Sports Arts Faithworld Business Traveler Entertainment Oddly Enough Lifestyle Video Pictures Pictures Home Reuters Photographers Full Focus Video Reuters TV Reuters News Article Comments (0) Follow Reuters Facebook Twitter RSS YouTube Read Afghanistan's Karzai slams United States over massacre | 12:13pm EDT Apple cements tablet market dominance with new iPad 9:04am EDT Analysis: Tapping oil from the SPR may be trickier than ever 12:11am EDT Gasoline lifts U.S. inflation, factory output up 11:00am EDT Insight: With Bo Xilai down, nine leaders who may soon run China | 5:58am EDT Discussed 179 U.S. serviceman detained in Afghanistan over civilian casualties 127 Sixteen Afghan civilians killed in rogue U.S. attack 123 UPDATE 4-Obama defends energy policies amid gas price pain Watched Reinventing the race car Wed, Mar 14 2012 Game therapy a powerful tool for paralysis patients Tue, Mar 13 2012 Robotic support brings freedom to paraplegics Tue, Mar 13 2012 Analysis: Analysts worry that something's amiss at Oracle Tweet Share this Email Print Related News SAP aims to become major database software maker Thu, Mar 15 2012 Dell to buy SonicWall from Thoma Bravo Tue, Mar 13 2012 Oracle lacks catalysts, says Jefferies Mon, Mar 12 2012 Apple unveils 4G iPad Thu, Mar 8 2012 HP slips on concerns of delay in turnaround Thu, Feb 23 2012 Analysis & Opinion Press Round-up – March 13 Corporate governance: boardrooms fret over corporate espionage and federal guidance regimes Related Topics Tech » Hot Stocks » Asian Markets » Media » Oracle CEO Larry Ellison delivers the keynote address at the 29th Oracle OpenWorld in San Francisco October 2, 2011. Credit: Reuters/Susana Bates By Jim Finkle BOSTON | Fri Mar 16, 2012 11:22am EDT BOSTON (Reuters) - Oracle Corp may soon run out of excuses to feed Wall Street. When the world's third-largest software maker missed earnings estimates for the first time in a decade back in December, it blamed an unpredictable global economy. It seemed plausible at the time. But growing evidence suggests the company is suffering due to challenges that have nothing to do with the macro economy: mounting competition from traditional foe SAP, the loss of a key IT partner in Hewlett Packard, and a hardware business that is becoming a thorn in its side. Analysts have become increasingly worried that the hardware business Oracle acquired in 2010 with its $5.6 billion purchase of Sun Microsystems has turned into a liability, with sales falling short of expectations. The company's bread-and-butter database business - Oracle is the world's biggest maker of database software - may face off against competition from a re-energized SAP before the end of this year. And Oracle's highly touted new generation of business management software, released in 2011 after years of delays in development, has been slow to take off. While this is happening in a still-shaky tech-spending environment, Oracle's rivals do not seem to be feeling the same pinch. SAP, International Business Machines Corp, Salesforce.com and VMware recently released relatively strong results and bullish outlooks, causing investors to question whether something is amiss at Oracle. CEO Larry Ellison will deliver his latest report card on the state of the business on March 20, when Oracle releases quarterly results. An increasingly skeptical crew of Wall Street analysts will be parsing his words and pouring through the numbers for signs of fundamental business problems, regardless of whether the company meets expectations for the period. "Oracle is a company with some issues right now," said long-time Oracle watcher Rick Sherlund, a Nomura Securities analyst. Those issues are reflected in its stock price, which has gained just 3 percent since the company reported quarterly results in December, compared with a 17 percent rise in the Nasdaq Composite Index. Oracle officials declined to comment for this story. SUN A MISTAKE? Some analysts believe buying Sun has undermined sales of Ellison's software because it put Oracle in direct competition with hardware makers who had long been some of the biggest resellers of his database programs and other products. "They made a mistake getting into the hardware business. How it resolves itself, I'm not really sure," said Fred Hickey, who has been monitoring Oracle since the 1980s and is editor of the High-Tech Strategist Newsletter for investors. While hardware makers such as Hewlett-Packard, IBM and Dell Inc continue to sell Oracle products, these days they are putting less effort into doing so, he said. The problem may be most acute with HP, the world's biggest computer maker. A bitter feud has erupted between Oracle and HP since Ellison's friend, Mark Hurd, abruptly resigned as HP CEO amid a sexual harassment scandal. Ellison admonished HP's board for the way it handled the matter, calling them "cowardly," and then hired Hurd. The two companies have since filed lawsuits against each other over Oracle's decision to stop producing software for high-end HP computers. SAP's HANA DATABASE Meanwhile, Oracle's rivals aren't standing still. Several analysts say they are concerned about a new strategic weapon in SAP's arsenal: a specialized database dubbed Hana that pulled in 160 million euros ($208 million) in sales in its first two quarters on the market, ahead of SAP's target of 100 million euros. SAP has packaged the technology with hardware from IBM as a niche product, a business intelligence tool to help companies analyze large quantities of data. Oracle developed a similar product - dubbed Exalytics - that it launched this month. The bigger threat from Hana, however, is that SAP is tweaking the technology so it can be used to hold data for business management applications that handle corporate accounting, human resources and procurement software. The bulk of SAP applications currently run on Oracle database software, and the German company is the biggest reseller of that product. But if Hana wins acceptance as an alternative to the Oracle database, that could either reduce sales of the Oracle database or force Oracle to slash prices. SAP Chief Technology Officer Vishal Sikka told Reuters his company expects to start selling a version of Hana that will serve as a database for SAP's core suite of business management software by the end of this year. Sikka has scheduled a press conference in San Francisco, not far from Oracle's Redwood City headquarters, on April 10 to unveil SAP's strategy for expanding in the database market. While it is too soon to handicap SAP's chances for success in that endeavor, analysts say concern is growing among Oracle investors. "This is something we will hear talked about a lot this year. This is creating apprehension for Oracle," said Sherlund of Nomura Securities. "It's an issue that Oracle will have to respond to with investors." Jefferies & Co analyst Ross MacMillan cut his recommendation on Oracle shares to "hold" from "buy" on Monday, citing Hana as one of several reasons. He said he was also concerned about the outlook for the hardware business, whose sales have dropped every quarter since Oracle purchased Sun. "One of the questions that has been on investors' minds is: When do we get to the point where the hardware business can grow?" MacMillan said. He said Oracle could lose some applications sales as it tries to persuade existing users to upgrade to a new product line known as Fusion Apps, which is loaded with new bells and whistles. MacMillan said users are likely to look at other options from Oracle rivals as they consider upgrading to Fusion Apps because it will be an expensive, lengthy process to convert all of a company's systems over to a new type of software. "If you are going to upgrade, it opens the door to look around and see what else is available," he said. To be sure, one thing that Wall Street analysts do not seemed to be concerned about is another earnings miss, given Oracle's established skill at managing the bottom line. Several said they expect the company to meet or beat modest expectations for its fiscal third quarter, ended February 29. Wall Street analysts are projecting that third-quarter revenue grew 2.5 percent from a year earlier to $9.02 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. They expect the company to post a profit, excluding one-time items, of 56 cents per share, up from 54 cents a year earlier. ($1 = 0.7677 euros) (Additional reporting by Nicola Leske in New York, editing by Edwin Chan and John Wallace) Tech Hot Stocks Asian Markets Media Related Quotes and News Company Price Related News Tweet this Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints We welcome comments that advance the story through relevant opinion, anecdotes, links and data. If you see a comment that you believe is irrelevant or inappropriate, you can flag it to our editors by using the report abuse links. Views expressed in the comments do not represent those of Reuters. For more information on our comment policy, see http://blogs.reuters.com/fulldisclosure/2010/09/27/toward-a-more-thoughtful-conversation-on-stories/ Comments (0) Be the first to comment on reuters.com. Add yours using the box above. Edition: U.S. Africa Arabic Argentina Brazil Canada China France Germany India Italy Japan Latin America Mexico Russia Spain United Kingdom Back to top Reuters.com Business Markets World Politics Technology Opinion Money Pictures Videos Site Index Legal Bankruptcy Law California Legal New York Legal Securities Law Support & Contact Support Corrections Advertise With Us Connect with Reuters Twitter Facebook LinkedIn RSS Podcast Newsletters Mobile About Privacy Policy Terms of Use AdChoices Copyright Our Flagship financial information platform incorporating Reuters Insider An ultra-low latency infrastructure for electronic trading and data distribution A connected approach to governance, risk and compliance Our next generation legal research platform Our global tax workstation Thomsonreuters.com About Thomson Reuters Investor Relations Careers Contact Us Thomson Reuters is the world's largest international multimedia news agency, providing investing news, world news, business news, technology news, headline news, small business news, news alerts, personal finance, stock market, and mutual funds information available on Reuters.com, video, mobile, and interactive television platforms. Thomson Reuters journalists are subject to an Editorial Handbook which requires fair presentation and disclosure of relevant interests. NYSE and AMEX quotes delayed by at least 20 minutes. Nasdaq delayed by at least 15 minutes. For a complete list of exchanges and delays, please click here.

Other News on Friday, 16 March 2012
Argentina will sue over Falklands oil exploration |
Chevron halts Brazil production after new leak |
Sanctions vice tightens on Iran over nuclear dispute |
Elusive Jamaican drug lord to finally face U.S. prison |
Exclusive: Iran food stockpiling grows as grain ships near port |
New iPad has chips from Samsung, Qualcomm: iFixit |
PayPal takes on Square in mobile payments |
Demandware debut shines on cloud appeal |
Hollywood producers to gain honors at GLAAD awards |
Arrest warrant issued for Russell Brand over iPhone |
Rihanna calls Chris Brown music reunion innocent |
Depardieu likes Sarkozy and Castro but not Strauss-Kahn |
Comic Gallagher suffers heart attack in Texas |
Afghan massacre suspect upset at fourth tour: lawyer |
Syrian forces press offensive in Idlib, 45 killed |
North Korea says to launch long-range rocket to mark founder's birth |
Swedes scour mountains for missing Norwegian plane |
Insight: Few options for Afghan, U.S. leaders after Kandahar massacre |
Clashes flare in Bahrain on Arab Spring anniversary |
President Ramos-Horta faces re-election battle in East Timor |
Kazakhstan frees jailed editor, dozens await trial |
Apple touches record high as iPad 3 sales run hot |
Facebook summons Wall Street for pre-IPO briefing |
SAP aims to become major database software maker |
IPO sets software firm NexJ on path to profit |
Bully documentary could hit theaters without rating |
Russell Brand arrested over iPhone toss |
Hollywood producers to gain honors at GLAAD awards |
Idol contestant disqualified for criminal past |
Springsteen gives SXSW fans lesson in making music |
Exclusive: Game of Thrones rules HBO's DVD sales |
James Bond returns home in 10-year book deal |
Afghanistan's Karzai slams United States over massacre |
Swiss bus crash bodies flown home as Belgium mourns |
Sound and fury of French election matters for markets |
Exclusive: Congo under scrutiny over Hezbollah business links |
Church of England's Archbishop of Canterbury to step down |
Indian police say Delhi, Bangkok blasts linked |
Eritrea urges U.N. action after Ethiopia attack |
Swiss woman kidnapped in Yemen: interior ministry |
Analysis: Analysts worry that something's amiss at Oracle |
German court delays Apple's slide-to-unlock lawsuit |
Clooney arrested at anti-Sudan protest in Washington |
Richards apologizes to fellow Rolling Stone Jagger |
Greece at new risk of being pushed off euro
Bodies of missing Tenn. mom, Jo Ann Bain, and daughter found
Female Breasts Are Bigger Than Ever
AMD Trinity Accelerated Processing Units Now in Volume Production
The Avengers (2012 film), made the second biggest opening- and single-day gross of all-time
AMD to Start Production of piledriver
Ivy Bridge Quad-Core, Four-Thread Desktop CPUs
Islamists Protest Lady Gaga's Concert in Indonesia
Japan Successfully Broadcasts an 8K Signal Over the Air
ECB boosts loans to 1 trillion Euro to stop credit crunch
Egypt : Mohammed Morsi won with 52 percent
What do you call 100,000 Frenchmen with their hands up
AMD Launches AMD Embedded R-Series APU Platform
Fed Should not Ignore Emerging Market Crisis
Fed casts shadow over India, emerging markets
Why are Chinese tourists so rude? A few insights

USD EUR - 1 year graph		BlogMeter 1.01