Mark Hurd, co-CEO of Oracle, takes sick leave

In a note to employees on Wednesday, Hurd asked permission to resolve health issues. Oracle did not mention the specific problems faced by the CEO and the company's representatives did not respond to requests for additional comments.

This absence means that Safra Catz will be the only CEO of Oracle. Since September 2014, Oracle has an unusual management structure in which Mr. Hurd and Ms. Catz share the title of CEO, while its co-founder, Larry Ellison, is President and Chief Technology Officer.

Ms. Catz stated that Mr. Hurd was "extremely involved" in the business through the first quarter of his fiscal year, which ended on August 31, but added that "Mark now needs to focus on his health. "managing Mr. Hurd's responsibilities in the meantime, according to Oracle.

Some members of the investment community have known for months that Mr. Hurd has health problems, said two analysts in the Wall Street Journal. Mr. Hurd was one of the Oracle executives who was scheduled to speak at the company's OpenWorld event next week in San Francisco.

The news regarding the departure of Mr Hurd was announced while Oracle had released its first quarter financial report a day earlier than planned and had revealed its intention to buy back $ 15 billion of additional shares. "We thought it made sense to share all our news at the same time," Catz said.

Oracle's shares fell 2.8% in after-hours trading as the company said its earnings excluding items were in line with analysts' estimates and sales were up slightly from a year ago previous.

Oracle, founded more than 40 years ago, has been a pioneer in enterprise database management. He was faced with stiff competition from the pillars of the industry, as

Microsoft
Corp.

in software sales to businesses, as well as to young rivals such as

Salesforce.com
Inc.

and

Working day
Inc.

According to research firm Gartner Inc., Salesforce and Microsoft are the third largest software vendors as a service in terms of market share, behind the manufacturer, their growth is also closely tied to the strength of spending on digital technology. company, analysts. Global spending on information technology is expected to grow by less than 1% this year to $ 3.74 billion, a slowdown from the 5.1% growth recorded a year earlier, said Gartner.

And while Oracle's first quarter is generally the slowest to generate revenue as a new sales cycle begins, Wedbush analyst Steve Koenig said the latest results were disappointing investors, who were expecting stronger growth after the company's database improved.

"This has probably prompted people to ask," When will Oracle show the much-anticipated growth? ", Did he declare.

Cloud computing was a good thing, "said Brad Zelnick, Credit Suisse analyst. Revenue from cloud services and licensing support, the largest segment of the company, increased 3% to $ 6.81 billion. In total, revenues increased by less than 1% to $ 9.22 billion.

In a conference call, Oracle executives expect their revenue to grow 1% to 3% over the previous year, compared to a 2.4% growth expected from analysts.

"This is one of the few companies that we believe will accelerate its growth this year," said Zelnick.

Oracle could also benefit from focusing on an essentially untapped field in cloud services offerings – planning business resources – Mr. Dit Zelnick, calling it the jewel of an organization .

During the last period, Oracle's profit fell 6% over the previous year, to stand at 2.13 billion, or 63 cents per share. On an adjusted basis, the company said its earnings were 81 cents per share, according to analysts' estimates, according to FactSet.

The $ 15 billion increase in Oracle's share buyback program is in addition to some $ 50 billion bought back in the last 18 months, but Stifel analyst Brad Reback is worried about the current slow pace of redemptions, based on the company's indebtedness.

At a call for results, Ellison verified the names of several large customers, saying they had chosen Oracle over its competitors for cloud services.

McDonalds
Corp.

for example, uses the company's cloud-based human capital management technology. "It was a battle between us and Workday," he said. "We won."

Write to Sarah E. Needleman at [email protected]