Enterprise tech giant Oracle returned to growth in its fiscal 2021 Q1 results after the pandemic caused sales to slump in the previous quarter.

Total revenue for the three months ended 31 August was $9.37bn, up 2% year-over-year and beating analyst expectations. In the previous quarter, revenue declined by 6%.

Net Q1 income was $2.25bn, a 5% year-on-year increase. This resulted in adjusted earnings per share were $0.72, while non-GAAP earnings were $0.93.

The US company benefited from an uptick in businesses investing in the cloud because of the shift to remote working.

Sales from cloud services, which accounts for three-quarters of Oracle’s revenue, were up 2% year-on-year to $6.95bn.

Its cloud and on-premise licensing unit saw revenue rise by 9%, up to $886m.

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Hardware sales dipped slightly, from $815m in Q1 last year to $814m this year. Oracle’s services business was the only segment to see a decline, with revenue decreasing 8% year-on-year to $720m.

“Q1 was fantastic with total revenue beating guidance by more than $150 million, and non-GAAP earnings per share beating guidance by $0.07,” said Oracle CEO, Safra Catz in a statement.

“Our cloud applications businesses continued their rapid revenue growth with Fusion ERP up 33% and NetSuite ERP up 23%. We now have 7,300 Fusion ERP customers and 23,000 NetSuite ERP customers in the Oracle Cloud.”

Oracle Q1 results: Zoom boost

In April video communications software company Zoom selected Oracle’s cloud infrastructure to support its meteoric growth during the pandemic.

This helped drive Oracle’s infrastructure business, with revenue from Zoom more than doubling from the previous quarter.

“I have a high level of confidence that our revenue will accelerate as we move on past Covid-19,” added Catz.

Oracle shares rose as much as 6% in extended trading following the publication of its Q1 results last night. Its share price is up 6% for the year.

Oracle is currently in talks to acquire the US business of video-sharing app TikTok after US President Donald Trump forced TikTok’s Chinese owner ByteDance to find a US buyer or face a ban.


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