Software giant's acquisition strategy continues to reap dividends

Oracle's revenue for the third quarter of fiscal year 2008 rose 21 per cent year on year to $5.3bn (£2.6bn), with net income up 30 per cent to $1.3bn (£646m).

Total software revenue rose 21 per cent to $4.2bn (£2.1bn), with new software licences for database and middleware software showing strong growth in a competitive market.

“Database and middleware new software licence revenue growth accelerated to 20 per cent in the third quarter,” said Oracle president Charles Phillips. “We continue to grow faster and take market share from IBM.”

Existing software licence updates and product support accounted for $2.6bn (£1.3bn), 25 per cent up on the same period last year, with service revenues growing 21 per cent to $1.1bn (£546m).

Oracle's acquisition strategy appears to have paid off. The company has considerably expanded its software portfolio through the buyouts of 39 different companies since 2005, including PeopleSoft, Siebel and BEA.