Oracle yesterday announced an increase in its profitability to 12.5 percent, news which saw its shares increase. Perhaps more importantly to IT watchers around the globe, the database juggernaut also says it expects the European Union to give the go-ahead for its acquisition of Sun Microsystems. An approval of the deal would essentially see Oracle metamorphose from being a pure software company to one that also deals in hardware.

Oracle has acquired 60 companies over the last five years in a buying spree as it expands to compete with the likes of SAP. The move to buy Sun however, puts Oracle on a decidedly different approach. It remains to be seen how well this strategy will play out, though the New York Times noted that this "will pressure its profit margins and ratchet up the tension with IBM." IBM is currently an Oracle partner and also sells servers and database software.

For more on this story:
- check out this article at Computerworld

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