Oracle 2008 Annual Report Download - page 17

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Table of Contents
including Eclipse Foundation, Inc. (Eclipse), an open source vendor. The success of our development tools is
closely related to the relative popularity of our other offerings (database and middleware and applications)
compared to our competitors as well as the larger platform competition between Sun’s Java and Microsoft’s
.NET.
In the sale of enterprise management software, we compete with BMC Software, Inc., Quest Software, Inc.,
IBM Tivoli, HP, CA, Compuware Corporation, Embarcadero Technologies, Inc., and open source vendors
such as Hyperic, Inc.
In the sale of operating systems, we introduced a support and service offering for Red Hat’s open source
Linux operating system in fiscal 2007. This placed us in competition with others who offer support for the
Linux operating system, including Red Hat, Novell, Inc. and Canonical Ltd. (through Ubuntu); as well as with
the Unix operating systems of IBM, Sun, HP and others and the Windows Server operating systems of
Microsoft.
In the sale of virtualization products, our offerings compete with those of VMware, Inc., IBM, Microsoft, Sun
and Citrix Systems, Inc., among others, including other vendors of open source virtualization products.
In the sale of consulting and systems integration services, we both partner with and compete against
Accenture Ltd., HP, IBM Global Services, Bearing Point, Inc., Capgemini Group, and many others (both
large and small).
In the sale of many of our products, we also compete with products and features developed internally by
customers and their IT staff.
Research and Development
We develop the substantial majority of our products internally. In addition, we have acquired technology
through business acquisitions. We also purchase or license intellectual property rights in certain
circumstances. Internal development allows us to maintain technical control over the design and development
of our products. We have a number of United States and foreign patents and pending applications that relate
to various aspects of our products and technology. While we believe that our patents have value, no single
patent is essential to us or to any of our principal business segments.
Research and development expenditures were $2.8 billion, $2.7 billion and $2.2 billion, in fiscal 2009, 2008
and 2007, respectively, or 12% of total revenues in each of the aforementioned fiscal years. As a percentage
of new software license revenues, research and development expenditures were 39%, 36% and 37% in fiscal
2009, 2008 and 2007, respectively. Rapid technological advances in hardware and software development,
evolving standards in computer hardware and software technology, changing customer needs and frequent
new product introductions and enhancements characterize the software markets in which we compete. We
plan on continuing to dedicate a significant amount of resources to research and development efforts to
maintain and improve our current product offerings including our database, middleware and applications
software products.
Employees
As of May 31, 2009, we employed approximately 86,000 full-time employees, including 20,000 in sales and
marketing, 8,000 in software license updates and product support, 28,000 in services, 22,000 in research and
development and 8,000 in general and administrative positions. Of these employees, approximately 28,000
were located in the United States and 58,000 were employed internationally. None of our employees in the
United States is represented by a labor union; however, in certain international subsidiaries workers’ councils
represent our employees.
Available Information
Our Annual Report on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, Current Reports on Form 8-K and
amendments to reports filed pursuant to Sections 13(a) and 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as
amended, are available, free of charge, on our Investor Relations web site at www.oracle.com/investor as
soon as reasonably practicable after we electronically file such material with, or furnish it to, the
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The information posted on our web site is not incorporated into
this Annual Report.
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Source: ORACLE CORP, 10-K, June 29, 2009 Powered by Morningstar® Document Research℠