Executives at Oracle didn't paint a rosy picture either. An IT market recovery appears further away than it did just three months ago, said Jeff Henley, chief financial officer of the database-software giant. Oracle reported a 10 percent decline in revenue in its fiscal first quarter, which ended in August. At the time, Henley had said revenue would begin to bounce back in the first half of next year. On Tuesday he said the outlook is unclear beyond Oracle's second quarter, which ends on November. Businesses in Europe and Asia are starting to show the same frugality in IT spending as their American counterparts, said Henley, and 46 percent of Oracle's first-quarter sales were from outside the United States. The company is moving ahead with a previously announced plan to cut about 500 jobs abroad, mostly in Europe, said Henley. Siebel, which laid off 10 percent of its employees in April, has no plans for further workforce reductions or restructuring, said Goldman. Neither Henley nor Goldman offered any updates on how their companies are tracking against their financial forecasts for the quarter now under way. Oracle said previously that it expects to earn a profit of 8 cents to 9 cents per share with overall revenue down 4 percent to 7 percent in the second quarter. Siebel said earlier this month that it expects fourth-quarter earnings in the middle of the single-digit range and licence revenue to be between $135m and $165m. Siebel's fourth quarter ends 31 December. One business-software executive offered an even darker take on the state of the IT industry. Marc Benioff, chief executive of privately traded Salesforce.com, said there are few signs of light in the US economy as companies continue to lay off employees, particularly sales and marketing people. "It's still a bloodbath among domestic sales forces," said Benioff.
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