Oracle Corp. surprised investors with a new business category in its quarterly results Thursday, “cloud software subscriptions,” in an amusing turnaround for its chief executive, Larry Ellison.
Ellison has often poked fun, especially at the company’s user conference, at the term “cloud computing.” In an interview at the AllThingsD event last May, Kara Swisher asked why he resisted the term.
“I objected to people saying, “Oh my God, we just invented cloud computing,” Ellison commented, adding that moving the complexity of the desktop to Internet servers had been recast as cloud computing. He did acknowledge that he thought the term was a “charismatic brand.” See: Oracle’s Larry Ellison at D10 and the dogfight in the cloud.
Ellison is now fully on board. In its first fiscal quarter, Oracle ORCL -1.59% combined cloud-software subscriptions with new software licenses, which showed an overall growth rate of 5% on a GAAP basis. Combined, the two businesses reported $5.7 billion in revenue, but the company did not break out details. On a call with investors, Oracle Co-President Safra Catz said total cloud revenue was $225 million.
Silver Lining of Cloud Computing 