Speaking at a meeting with investors, Phillips reiterated that the company was winning share from rivals like IBM and SAP of Germany and on track to meet its goal for annual earnings-per-share growth of 20 percent. "Right now it is about gaining market share," Phillips said. "We think our destiny is up to us. We are not waiting for a big acceleration in IT spending."

Phillips also said 15 percent of that profit growth would come from winning new business and the remainder from acquisitions, which are more likely to be small to medium-sized deals. He also forecast the company's margins would improve in fiscal 2007, saying a decline in the fourth quarter was due to acquisition-related costs and other one-time expenses.

Oracle, the world's biggest maker of database software, last month posted an adjusted operating margin of 45 percent in its fiscal fourth quarter, compared with 46 percent a year earlier. "We feel pretty confident margins will go up in (2007)," Phillips said. "Most (of those factors) did not extend into the first quarter."

Phillips' business update comes after Oracle surprised investors in June when it posted a higher fourth-quarter profit on stronger-than-expected new software license revenue. The company also said it was taking share from major rivals.

Analysts have said it was too early to say whether Oracle was indeed taking share from SAP but they agreed the U.S-based software maker's acquisition strategy could be starting to pay off.

Oracle generates most of its revenue from its database products but, as its core business matures, it has made a huge push into the market for software applications led by SAP.

Oracle has spent some $19 billion over the past two years to challenge SAP in the market for applications that help businesses manage everything from human resources to accounting to inventory.