(AOF) – Oracle unveiled slightly weaker than expected revenues. In the third quarter, ending at the end of February, of its fiscal year 2023, the professional software company recorded net income of $1.9 billion, or 68 cents per share, compared to a profit of 2.32 billion or 1.84 dollar per share, a year earlier. Excluding exceptional items, earnings per share came out at $1.22, or 2 cents better than the Bloomberg consensus.
Oracle’s revenue rose 18% to $12.4 billion while the market was targeting $12.41 billion. They are up 21% at constant exchange rates.
Oracle said revenue from its core division, which includes its cloud business, rose 17% to $7.64 billion. Their growth is 20% at constant exchange rates. Cloud alone grew 45% (+48% at constant exchange rates) to $4.1 billion.
On-premises and cloud license sales were flat at $1.29 billion. They are up by 4% at constant exchange rates.
For the current quarter, Oracle is targeting earnings per share excluding special items of between $1.56 and $1.60 per share. The Bloomberg consensus stands at $1.45.
The SAP competitor is also targeting revenue growth of 17% to 19%, including Cerner, which was recently acquired. At constant exchange rates, growth is expected between 15% and 17%. The cloud is expected to grow by 51% to 53% at constant exchange rates.
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European cloud players file complaint against Microsoft
These groups have benefited from a jump in their activity of 167% over the last five years. However, their share in the European cloud fell from 27% to 13% over the period. That of Amazon, Microsoft and Google has jumped from 46% to 72%, according to Synergy Research. The European leader, SAP, is only in seventh place with only 2% of the market.
European players accuse Microsoft, the world’s number one cloud provider, of taking advantage of its position as a software publisher and cloud service provider to force its software customers to switch to its services if they want to migrate to the cloud. Despite recent announcements from Microsoft to calm things down, European players are offering to test its compliance with the ten principles of fair software licensing established by Cigref, the French association of the main digital customers.