From technology giant, Oracle Corporations, to pharmaceutical companies like Abbott Laboratories to manufacturers like Caterpillar and fast-food chain McDonald’s, a strong U.S. dollar against local currencies is exposing a painful side effect of their global expansion.
These companies had expanded aggressively to emerging markets over the past decade while the strategy seemed like a winner a few years back.
Nigeria CommunicationsWeek had reported via its eNewsletter of December 1, 2014, when Dr. Umar Bindr, director general of the National Office for Technology Acquisition and Promotion (NOTAP) accused telecommunications operators of putting enormous pressure on the nation’s foreign exchange as they seek approvals to acquire foreign software to drive their networks.
Bindr had counted back to 12 months ago when the operators obtained approvals to spend about N20bn on foreign technology agreements sought by the operators.
But, Oracle Corporation on Friday, tearfully reported that its total revenues downed 5% to $10.7 billion which would have been up 3% in constant currency.
Pre-elections 2015, especially between October 2014 and March 2015, the Nigerian naira weakened against US dollars up to N300/dollar.
While announcing it fiscal 2015 Q4 results, Oracle said that the total fourth quarter (Q4) revenues were $10.7 billion, down 5% but would have been up 3% without the strengthening of the U.S. dollar.
Nigeria CommunicationsWeek gathered from the account that Oracle’s software and cloud revenues were $8.4 billion, down 6%, but up 2% in constant currency, while cloud software as a service (SaaS) and platform as a service (PaaS) revenues were $416 million, growing 29%, and up 35% in constant currency.
Also, its cloud infrastructure as a service (IaaS) revenues were $160 million, growing 25%, and up 31% in constant currency and the hardware Systems Revenues were $1.4 billion, down 4%, but up 5% in constant currency.
Q4 operating income was $4.0 billion, and the Operating Margin was 37%. Non-GAAP Operating Income was $5.0 billion, and the non-GAAP Operating Margin was 46%.
Net Income was $2.8 billion while non-GAAP Net Income was $3.5 billion. Earnings Per Share was $0.62, down 23%, and down 12% in constant currency, while non-GAAP Earnings Per Share was $0.78, down 14%, and down 5% in constant currency.
Short-term Deferred revenues were $7.2 billion, slightly down, but up 9% in constant currency compared with a year ago. Operating Cash Flow on a trailing twelve-month basis was $14.3 billion.
For fiscal year 2015, Total Revenues were $38.2 billion, essentially unchanged, but up 4% in constant currency.
Software and Cloud Revenues were $29.5 billion, up 1%, and up 5% in constant currency. Cloud SaaS and PaaS revenues were $1.5 billion, up 32%, and up 35% in constant currency. Cloud IaaS revenues were $608 million, up 33%, and up 36% in constant currency.
Total Hardware System Revenues were $5.2 billion, down 3%, but up 2% in constant currency. Operating Income was $13.9 billion, and the Operating Margin was 36%. Non-GAAP Operating Income was $17.4 billion, and non-GAAP Operating Margin was 45%.
Net Income was $9.9 billion, while non-GAAP Net Income was $12.5 billion. Earnings Per Share was $2.21, down 7%, but unchanged in constant currency. Non-GAAP Earnings Per Share was $2.77 down 3%, but up 2% in constant currency.
Speaking on the report, Safra Catz, Oracle CEO, said, “We sold an astonishing $426 million of new SaaS and PaaS annually recurring cloud subscription revenue in Q4. We expect our rapidly increasing cloud sales to quickly translate into significantly more revenue and profits for Oracle Corporation.
For example, SaaS and PaaS revenues grew at a 34% constant currency rate in our just completed Q4, but we expect that revenue growth rate to jump to around 60% in constant currency this new fiscal year.”
“Coming into Q4, we forecast selling $300 million of new SaaS and PaaS annual recurring revenue,” said Mark Hurd, Oracle CEO. “We dramatically beat that forecast by selling a cloud industry all-time-record amount of $426 million of new SaaS and PaaS business. That is a year-over-year bookings growth rate of over 200%. As our multi-billion dollar cloud business gets bigger, our SaaS and PaaS revenue growth rates are on their way up to 60% in constant currency. Compare this to our primary cloud competitors’ whose own revenue growth forecasts are on their way down to 44% and 22%.”
“We expect to book between $1.5 and $2.0 billion of new SaaS and PaaS business this fiscal year,” said Oracle Executive Chairman and CTO Larry Ellison. “That means Oracle would sell more new SaaS and PaaS business than salesforce.com plans to sell in their current fiscal year – the only remaining question is how much more. Oracle’s planned SaaS and PaaS revenue growth rate is around 60% in constant currency; salesforce.com has a planned growth rate of around 20%. When you contrast those growth rates it becomes clear that Oracle is on its way to becoming the world’s largest enterprise cloud company.”
The Board of Directors also declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.15 per share of outstanding common stock. This dividend will be paid to stockholders of record as of the close of business on July 8, 2015, with a payment date of July 29, 2015.