Despite earlier this week announcing disappointing first-quarter results, Oracle Corp. (Nasdaq: ORCL) says it expects its second quarter will be stronger. However, many analysts are skeptical, as the company’s attempted takeover of Sun Microsystems Inc. (Nasdaq: JAVA) has not gone as smoothly as planned.

Oracle reported revenue for the three months ended Aug. 31 fell 5%, to $5.05 billion. Analysts were expecting $5.2 billion of sales.

Net income rose 4% to $1.1 billion, or 22 cents a share, by Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP), but the company leaned heavily on support contracts and cost cutting to maintain profitability. The world’s second-largest software maker blamed the drop on declining overseas sales and a stronger U.S. dollar.

“Oracle’s results were impacted by the reduced value of foreign currencies when compared to U.S. dollars, reducing Q1 GAAP earnings by $0.02 per share,” the company said. “Without this impact, Oracle’s Q1

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Oracle Corp. (ORCL) reported better-than-expected fiscal fourth-quarter results late Tuesday, despite sluggish sales.

Shares of this Zacks #2 Rank ("Buy") company have jumped more than 8% on higher-than-usual volume of approximately 50.5 million, compared to the average daily volume of about 32.6 million.

The enterprise software company posted adjusted earnings of 44 cents per share, edging past the consensus estimate by a penny.

Quarterly revenue slipped 5% to $6.9 billion, although it still came in ahead of Wall Street expectations. The company also said that it was able to garner market share from archrival SAP (SAP) across every geographic region.

Oracle's software license sales declined 13% to $2.7 billion, while revenue from software license updates and product support rose 8% to $3.1 billion.

Meanwhile, fiscal first-quarter adjusted profit is expected between 29 cents and 31 cents, said President Safra Catz on a conference call with analysts. The

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By Don Miller Associate Editor Money Morning In a surprise move yesterday (Monday), Oracle Corp. (ORCL) pounced on the opportunity to buy Sun Microsystems Inc. (JAVA), for about $7.4 billion in cash, stepping in after Sun’s talks with International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) fell apart. The deal gives Oracle control of server and software maker Sun’s coveted Java programming language and brings to a close Sun’s 27-year reign as the maverick of Silicon Valley. Java is the dominant language of the Internet and runs on over 1 billion devices worldwide. The acquisition is in line with Oracle’s overall business strategy. Oracle, the world’s second-biggest software maker, has dropped $34.5 billion on buyouts since 2005, making it the most aggressive software company in the hi-tech field. "The deal would strengthen Oracle’s position against IBM. Oracle has done a good job ...

Oracle Corp (ORCL) soared 8% on heavy volume a day after the software maker posted a 19% jump in quarterly profit, impressive results in a tough environment. Analysts had expected the company's business management applications PeopleSoft and Siebel to suffer in the ongoing credit crunch. Oracle's first-quarter income increased to 29 cents a share before acquisition-related expenses, beating consensus estimates by 11.54%.

Company President Safra Catz said, "If a customer is buying, they're much more likely to be buying from us." After the results, analysts said Oracle is gaining market share at the cost of peers like Microsoft (MSFT) and IBM (IBM).

This stock received another boost this morning along with other tech stocks as the Federal government sought to address the on-going credit crisis. Analysts forecast earnings of $1.46 a share for fiscal 2009. However, in spite of stellar results in a seasonally weak

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