Oracle fiscal 3Q net income up 78 pct

(AP) -- Database software maker Oracle Corp. said Thursday its net income rose 78 percent in the fiscal third quarter, helped by a rise in new software license sales and the benefit of three full months of revenue from Sun Microsystems, a company it acquired last year.

Net income for the quarter that ended on Feb. 28 increased to $2.1 billion, or 41 cents per share, from $1.2 billion, or 23 cents per share a year earlier.

Excluding certain items, Oracle earned 54 cents per share, more than Wall Street was expecting. Analysts surveyed by FactSet forecast earnings of 50 cents per share.

Revenue jumped 37 percent to $8.8 billion from $6.4 billion, more than the $8.7 billion analysts predicted. The company said revenue increased more than 30 percent in every region worldwide.

Oracle, which makes the database software that underpins everyday transactions, from bank withdrawals to airline reservations, said new software license sales, a key figure for measuring Oracle's growth, increased almost 30 percent to $2.2 billion, above its own forecast for a 10 percent to 20 percent improvement.

Hardware systems revenue more than tripled to $1.7 billion from $458 million in the year-ago quarter. Oracle's $7.3 billion acquisition of Sun Microsystems, a server computer company, closed last January, so last year's quarter only included one month of revenue from Sun. This year's quarter included three months of Sun revenue.