ORCL Company Profile

Our goal is to provide a wide range of customers with scalable, reliable and secure database technology software and integrated business applications software that give them transactional efficiency and quality information at a low total cost of ownership.

We are organized into two businesses, which are further organized into five operating segments. Our software business is comprised of two operating segments: (1) new software licenses and (2) software license updates and product support. Our services business is comprised of three operating segments: (1) consulting, (2) advanced product services, and (3) education.

Sales Distribution Channels

In the United States, we market our products and services primarily through our own direct sales and service organization. Sales and service employees are based in our headquarters and in field offices located in approximately 55 metropolitan areas.

Outside the United States, we market our products and services primarily through our subsidiary sales and service organizations. Our subsidiaries license and support our products in their local countries as well as within other foreign countries where we do not operate through a direct sales subsidiary.

We also market our products worldwide through indirect channels. The companies that comprise our indirect channel network are members of the Oracle Partner Network. Our partners resell our products or combine our database, development tools and applications with computer hardware, software application packages or services for subsequent redistribution and/or implementation.

The Oracle Partner Network allows us to pursue new business opportunities through partners as well as with direct customers. Partners in the program include consultants, education providers, internet service providers, network integrators, resellers, independent software vendors and system integrators/implementers. Partners can also participate in the Oracle Technology Network. This program is specifically designed for the database administrator, internet developer and applications suite user communities. We provide applications, technology, education and technical support that enable our partners to effectively integrate our products into their business offerings. The combination of the Oracle technology stack, the Oracle E-Business Suite and our partners’ expertise broadens our exposure in new markets.

International

We have offices in more than 70 countries and conduct business worldwide. We believe our geographic diversity allows us to draw on business and technical expertise from a worldwide workforce, provides stability to our operations and revenue streams to offset geography-specific economic trends and offers us an opportunity to take advantage of new markets for maturing products.

Customers

Our customer base consists of a significant number of businesses of many sizes, government agencies, educational institutions and resellers. Our primary industry markets include defense and government, education, financial services, technology, transportation, life sciences, telecommunications, manufacturing and healthcare.

Competition

The software industry is intensely competitive and rapidly evolving. We compete in various markets including the database management system, data warehouse, collaboration, application server, development tools, applications, consulting, education and outsourcing markets. Total cost of ownership, performance, functionality, ease of use, product reliability, security and quality of technical support are the key competitive factors that face us in each of the markets in which we compete.

Our principal software competitors in the database management system and collaboration markets are International Business Machines Corporation and Microsoft Corporation. In the data warehousing market, our online analytical processing products compete primarily with those of Business Objects S.A., Cognos Incorporated, Hyperion Solutions Corporation and NCR Corporation. In the application server market, our competitors include BEA Systems, Inc., IBM, Microsoft and SAP Aktiengesellschaft Systeme. In the development tools market, we compete primarily against Borland Software Corporation, IBM and Microsoft. In the applications market, we compete against Lawson Software, Inc., Microsoft, PeopleSoft, SAP, Siebel Systems, Inc. and many other application providers, as well as outsourced and in-house solutions for customers. We may also face competition in the open source software initiatives, in which companies such as JBoss and MySQL provide software and intellectual property free over the internet. Among the business process outsourcers that we compete against include Automatic Data Processing, Inc., Fidelity Investments, Ceridian Corporation, Hewitt-Cyborg Limited and others. In the consulting and technical outsourcing markets, we periodically compete against Accenture Ltd., Electronic Data Systems Corporation, IBM Global Services and other smaller service providers.