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Posted on ZDNet News: Sep 20, 2007 1:45:00 PM

Reuters Logo Oracle, the world's third largest software maker, reported higher quarterly profit on Thursday as sales of products acquired over the past year helped boost earnings.

The company, which specializes in business software, reported fiscal first-quarter net income of $840 million, or 16 cents per share, compared with $670 million, or 13 cents, a year earlier.

Revenue rose to $4.53 billion from $3.59 billion.

The results were buoyed by sales of products that were not in Oracle's lineup a year ago. Oracle added them after buying Hyperion Solutions, Stellent, MetaSolv and several other software makers over the past year.

Oracle trades at about 16 times the average outlook for next year's earnings per share, and slightly above the future price-to-earnings ratio for Microsoft, which is 16.

Technology services company IBM, the No. 2 software maker, trades at 15 times earnings. Oracle is the leader in database software, ahead of IBM, and No. 2 in business applications behind Germany's SAP AG, which trades at 22 times estimated 2008 earnings.

Story Copyright © 2007 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.

Story Copyright © 2007 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.

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