Oracle share price falls as new licence sales flatline

Oracle has reported that new licence revenues for its key database and middleware products were almost flat in the last quarter – and immediately suffered a 5% slump in its share price yesterday.

For the quarter ended 31 August, Oracle said new licence revenues for database and middleware products were up just 1% to $492m (£289m), and that business in Europe was particularly weak.

Larry Ellison, Oracle chief executive officer, said that while year-on-year comparisons showed a big slip, the underlying rise in database sales was still around 10% compared with previous quarters.

This year, Oracle has completed the acquisition of PeopleSoft, bought retail software specialist Retek, and recently announced it was spending almost $6bn to take control of Siebel Systems.