Oracle Corp. Misses Q1 Views; Shuffles Top Managers

Oracle Corp. ORCL missed fiscal first-quarter expectations Thursday and unexpectedly shuffled its top management.

In Thursday's extended session, Oracle fell 2.6 percent recently, trading at $40.49 a share.

Founder Lawrence J. Ellison stepped aside as chief executive and will serve as Oracle's chairman, while presidents Safra A. Catz and Mark V. Hurd were named co-chief executives.

The 69-year-old Jeffrey O. Henley, Oracle's chairman for the last 10 years, was named vice chairman.

Oracle also boosted its existing buyback program by an additional $13 billion.

For the recent quarter, net income was nearly flat at $2.18 billion, of $0.47 a share, compared with $2.19 billion, or $0.48 a share in the year-earlier period. Adjusted income grew 4 percent to $0.62 cents a share.

Revenue grew 2.7 percent to $8.6 billion from $8.37 billion a year earlier.

Wall Street expected earnings of $0.64 cents a share, on revenue of $8.78 billion.

Software plus Cloud revenue grew 6 percent to $6.6 billion, while hardware systems revenue fell 8 percent to $1.2 billion.

Cloud services grew more than 30 percent to $475 million while operating cash flow increased 7 percent to $6.7 billion.

"We are laser-focused on two goals: growing our cloud business and growing our cash flow," Co-Chief Executive Catz said.

Catz, 52, joined Oracle in 1999 and was named chief financial officer in 2011. Previously, she served in the same role from 2005 to 2008. As co-chief executive, Catz will oversee manufacturing, finance and legal operations.

Hurd , 57, joined Oracle in 2010 and was previously chairman and chief executive of Hewlett Packard Co. HPQ. In his new role, Hurd oversees sales, service and vertical industry business units.

Founder Ellison was also named chief technology officer and will continue to oversee the company's software and hardware engineering.