Oracle Revenue Beats Expectations as Cloud Business Soars

Business software maker Oracle Corp reported a higher-than-expected revenue in the fourth quarter, boosted by a surge in sales from its cloud business.

Shares of the company were up 2.5 percent at $39.59 in extended trading on Thursday.

Like its rivals such as SAP SE, IBM Corp and Microsoft Corp, Oracle has focused on moving its business towards the cloud-computing model, essentially providing services remotely via data centers rather than selling installed software.

Total revenue from company's cloud-computing software and platform service rose 49.1 percent to $859 million in the fourth quarter ended May 31.

The company's total revenue fell 1 percent to $10.59 billion, beating analysts' average estimate of $10.47 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Oracle's net income rose to $2.81 billion, or 66 cents per share, in the quarter ended May 31, from $2.76 billion, or 62 cents per share, a year earlier.

Excluding items, it earned 81 cents per share, meeting average analysts' estimate.

Up to Thursday's close, Oracle's stock had risen 5.8 percent this year. (Reporting by Narottam Medhora in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta)