Giants flex marketing muscles

Oracle is also claiming leadership in the business applications area, a claim disputed by German giant SAP.

Announcing its full-year results last month, Oracle claimed to have sold $US447 million in software applications licences in the fourth quarter, compared with $352 million from SAP.

But SAP says all Oracle is proving is clear leadership in marketing hype. While Oracle's fiscal quarter ended on May 31, SAP's ended two months earlier on 31 March. On an annualised basis, SAP's software licence revenues were more than twice those of Oracle.

Oracle spokesman Jeremy Burton said SAP's reaction shows the Germans are running scared. Even with the quarters being out of sync, the result would have been unthinkable even two years ago. He said Oracle's applications business was growing 61 per cent a year.