Arik Hesseldahl

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Oracle Kills It in Q4, Buys Back $10 Billion Worth of Shares

Oracle just released its fourth-quarter earnings results three days earlier than planned, and they’re a lot stronger than anyone expected.

The highlight is that it beat the consensus EPS by four cents, reporting earnings of 82 cents a share versus the street view of 78 cents. Revenue was in line with expectations: $10.9 billion, up 1 percent.

The other highlight is that Oracle has authorized a re-purchase of $10 billion worth of shares.

In after-hours trading, Oracle shares rose 88 cents, or more than 3 percent, to $28 a share.

The early disclosure came on chatter — which CNBC’s John Fortt just reported as confirmed moments ago — that executive vice president and head of North American Sales Keith Block has left the company. The departure comes in the wake of the surfacing of some embarrassing instant messages in a release of documents by Hewlett-Packard a few weeks ago, arising from the ongoing lawsuit between the two companies over Intel’s Itanium chip.

Oracle’s statement is below.

Oracle Reports Q4 GAAP EPS Up 11% to 69 Cents; Q4 Non-GAAP EPS Up 10% to 82 Cents

Fiscal Year 2012 Operating Cash Flow Up 23% to $13.7 Billion

REDWOOD SHORES, CA–(Marketwire -06/18/12)- Oracle Corporation (ORCL) today announced fiscal 2012 Q4 GAAP total revenues were up 1% to $10.9 billion, while non-GAAP total revenues were up 1% to $11.0 billion. Both GAAP and non-GAAP new software license revenues were up 7% to $4.0 billion. Both GAAP and non-GAAP software license updates and product support revenues were up 5% to $4.2 billion. Both GAAP and non-GAAP hardware systems products revenues were down 16% to $977 million. GAAP operating income was up 5% to $4.6 billion, and GAAP operating margin was 42%. Non-GAAP operating income was up 5% to $5.5 billion, and non-GAAP operating margin was 50%. GAAP net income was up 8% to $3.5 billion, while non-GAAP net income was up 7% to $4.1 billion. GAAP earnings per share were $0.69, up 11% compared to last year while non-GAAP earnings per share were up 10% to $0.82. GAAP operating cash flow for fiscal year 2012 was $13.7 billion, up 23% compared to last year.

Without the impact of the US dollar strengthening compared to foreign currencies, Oracle’s reported Q4 GAAP earnings per share would have been $0.03 higher at $0.72, up 16%, and Q4 non-GAAP earnings per share would have been $0.04 higher at $0.86, up 15%. Both GAAP and non-GAAP total revenues also would have been up 5%, GAAP new software license revenues would have been up 11%, non-GAAP new software license revenues would have been up 12% and both GAAP and non-GAAP hardware systems products revenues would have been down 13%.

For fiscal year 2012, GAAP total revenues were up 4% to $37.1 billion, while non-GAAP total revenues were up 4% to $37.2 billion. GAAP new software license revenues were up 7% to $9.9 billion. Non-GAAP new software license revenues were up 8% to $9.9 billion. GAAP software license updates and product support revenues were up 10% to $16.2 billion, while non-GAAP software license updates and product support revenues were up 9% to $16.3 billion. Both GAAP and non-GAAP hardware systems products revenues were $3.8 billion. GAAP operating income was up 14% to $13.7 billion, and GAAP operating margin was 37%. Non-GAAP operating income was up 8% to $17.2 billion, and non-GAAP operating margin was 46%. GAAP net income was up 17% to $10.0 billion, while non-GAAP net income was up 10% to $12.5 billion. GAAP earnings per share were $1.96, up 18% compared to last year while non-GAAP earnings per share were up 11% to $2.46.

“Our record-breaking fourth quarter featured several all-time highs for Oracle: new software license sales of $4 billion, total software revenue of $8 billion, total revenue of $11 billion, and EPS of 82 cents,” said Oracle President and CFO, Safra Catz. “For the fiscal year, we also set all-time highs for operating margins of 46%, and operating cash flow of $13.7 billion.”

“Our engineered systems business is now operating at well over a billion dollar revenue run rate,” said Oracle President, Mark Hurd. “For the year, the Exadata, Exalogic, Exalytics, SPARC SuperCluster and the Oracle Big Data Appliance product group grew over 100% year-over-year.”

“The development of Oracle Cloud is strategic to increasing the size and profitability of Oracle’s software business,” said Oracle Chief Executive Officer, Larry Ellison. “Our Oracle Cloud SaaS business is nearly at a billion dollar revenue run rate, the same size as our engineered systems hardware business. The combination of engineered systems and the Oracle Cloud will drive Oracle’s growth in FY 2013.”

The Board of Directors also declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.06 per share of outstanding common stock. This dividend will be paid to stockholders of record as of the close of business on July 13, 2012, with a payment date of August 3, 2012.

Oracle also announced that its Board of Directors authorized the repurchase of up to an additional $10.0 billion of common stock under its existing share repurchase program in future quarters.

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The problem with the Billionaire Savior phase of the newspaper collapse has always been that billionaires don’t tend to like the kind of authority-questioning journalism that upsets the status quo.

— Ryan Chittum, writing in the Columbia Journalism Review about the promise of Pierre Omidyar’s new media venture with Glenn Greenwald