Oracle has reported first-quarter revenue that narrowly missed analysts' estimates, suggesting that the business software maker was struggling to make inroads in the highly competitive cloud computing market.
Shares of Oracle fell 4% in extended trading as the company's biggest unit, which houses its cloud services business, also reported disappointing sales.
Revenue in its cloud services and license support business rose 3.2% to $6.61 billion, falling short of the average analyst estimate of $6.71 billion.
The company's co-chief executive Safra Katz attributing the miss to a strong dollar.
Oracle is a late entrant to the cloud business and has been playing catch up with rivals, including Amazon.com, Microsoft and Salesforce.com.
In its efforts to take a bigger share of the cloud computing market, the company said earlier this year that it would quadruple the number of its largest data centres.
However, the company is yet to present a credible challenge to the dominant players in the industry.
Oracle stopped breaking out its cloud computing numbers in the fourth quarter, a move that drew criticism from analysts and investors, who said it gave little insight into the performance of its key business.
For the second quarter, the company said it expected revenue to be flat to up 2% and earnings of 78 to 80 cents per share, the mid-point of which was in line with analysts' estimates.
Net income rose to $2.27 billion, or 57 cents per share, in the reported quarter ended August 31 from $2.14 billion, or 50 cents per share, a year earlier.
Excluding items, the company earned 71 cents per share, while total revenue rose 1% to $9.19 billion.
Analysts on average were expecting an adjusted profit of 69 cents per share on revenue of $9.28 billion, according to Thomson Reuters.
