In a recent Bloomberg article, CFO Safra Catz expressed hoped in improving Oracle’s profit margins with the usage of cloud computing. The software company, based in Redwood, California, has seen a loss in sales, and on September 18th, the company provided a profit forecast that was weaker-than-projected for the fiscal second quarter. That fiscal period will end in November.
In a meeting with analysts on September 26th in San Francisco, Catz offered an optimistic outlook for the company, and said that a move to cloud computing will result in higher profits. Oracle spent over $50 billion on acquisitions over the past 10 years to improve sales and expansion. They are contending with a highly competitive market and are up against giants such as Salesforce.com and Workday Inc. These companies are offering software tools that are Internet based. Oracle anticipates being a big player in this arena, too.
Catz brushed off claims that the company will disappear.
“Oracle will be left in the dust — I’ve probably heard that half a dozen times,” Catz explained. But shifting towards mobile and web-based applications, Oracle has no intention of being left behind in the dust. The company is also not deterred by the current economy.
This week the company rolled out a new database software – 12c – to its customers. 12c runs customers’ existing applications by allowing additional data into computer memory. This means the data is not on disk and the results are faster data analysis and transaction processing.
Oracle is also addressing pay to its high level executives in a way to increase profits. An annual shareholder meeting will take place on October 31st, and it is likely that compensation will be on the list of items to discuss.
