Oracle Corporation (NASDAQ:ORCL) reported net income above Wall Street’s expectations for the first quarter. Net income for the application software company rose to $1.84 billion (36 cents per share) vs. $1.35 billion (27 cents per share) in the same quarter a year earlier. This marks a rise of 36.1% from the year earlier quarter.Revenue rose 11.6% to $8.37 billion from the year earlier quarter. ORCL reported adjusted net income of 48 cents per share. By that measure, the company beat the mean estimate of 44 cents per share. Analysts were expecting revenue of $8.36 billion.

“New software license sales grew 17%,” said Oracle President and CFO, Safra Catz. “This strong organic growth coupled with disciplined business management enabled yet another increase in our operating margin in Q1. Operating cash flow increased this quarter to $5.4 billion, up $1.6 billion from $3.8 billion in Q1 of last year.” “Our high-end server business — Exadata, Exalogic, and SPARC M-Series — delivered solid double digit revenue growth in Q1,” said Oracle President, Mark Hurd.

Competitors to Watch: Intl. Business Machines Corp. (NYSE:IBM), Hewlett-Packard Company (NYSE:HPQ), Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT), SAP AG (NYSE:SAP), Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC), Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), Red Hat, Inc. (NYSE:RHT), EMC Corporation (NYSE:EMC), CA, Inc. (NASDAQ:CA), and Adobe Systems Incorporated (NASDAQ:ADBE).

Adobe Systems Incorporated (NASDAQ:ADBE) reported its results for the third quarter. Net income for the application software company fell to $195.1 million (39 cents per share) vs. $230.1 million (44 cents per share) a year earlier. This is a decline of 15.2% from the year earlier quarter. Revenue rose 2.3% to $1.01 billion from the year earlier quarter. ADBE reported adjusted net income of 55 cents per share. By that measure, the company beat the mean estimate of 44 cents per share. Analysts were expecting revenue of $994.8 million.

“Our industry is in the midst of a major transformation,” said Shantanu Narayen, president and CEO of Adobe. “We are aligning around two large initiatives: Content Authoring and Digital Marketing. Each of these opportunities offers significant growth potential, and Adobe is well-positioned to be the market leader in both.”

Competitors to Watch: Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT), Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG), Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), Oracle Corporation (NASDAQ:ORCL), Autodesk, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADSK), Sonic Solutions (NASDAQ:SNIC), Monotype Imaging Hldgs. Inc. (NASDAQ:TYPE), Bitstream Inc. (NASDAQ:BITS), Intl. Business Machines Corp. (NYSE:IBM), and Sonic Foundry, Inc. (NASDAQ:SOFO).

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