W. Jordan wins Oracle plant

Data-storage center will employ 100 people at high wages. Business software giant Oracle Corp. on Monday said it will build a data-storage center in West Jordan that will employ around 100 people when the center opens in two years.
Oracle said it would go ahead with the $285 million data center after Utah economic development officials agreed Friday to offer the Redwood City, Calif.-based company up to $15 million in tax-rebate incentives.
In addition, West Jordan has promised Oracle a $10 million incentive - to be funded by the new property taxes that the data center is expected to generate.
Several local governments will also provide about $10 million to Oracle. Representatives of the governments will meet in July to determine how the incentive will be structured, West Jordan community development director Tom Burdett said.
The company plans to break ground this summer on the 200,000-square-foot data center in the Bingham Business Park at 6200 West and 9600 South.
"It's a big coup for the state. These are very high-paying jobs, even in Salt Lake City, in an industry we are trying to grow," said Jason Perry, executive director of the Governor's Office of Economic Development.
Oracle said it will pay wages averaging $64,000, for a total payroll of $7.3 million. Wages will be approximately 200 percent of the Salt Lake County average wage, GOED spokesman Michael Sullivan said.
Oracle said the data center is expected to open by early 2010 for its global information technology operations.
The data center will support Oracle's on-demand division, which stores and retrieves data for business customers.
It will also assist ''our research-and-development and customer-service requirements,'' Oracle President Safra Catz said in a statement.
"An opportunity like this doesn't come along every day," said West Jordan City Manager Gary Luebbers. "But when it did, we engaged every available resource to convince Oracle to locate in West Jordan. We anticipate Oracle will be a strong partner with the city for decades to come."
Oracle chose Utah for the data center after considering locations in several states. Last month, the company appeared to have settled on property in Meridian, Idaho, but changed its mind when a property owner raised the price of the site at the last moment, according to the Idaho Business Review in Boise.
Oracle already employs 150 people in Utah at a software sales and support office in Sandy.

Author: Paul Beebe @ www.sltrib.com

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Oracle's Got What It Takes - Barron's

Barron's cover story this week takes a sensationally bullish stance on Oracle (ORCL) and its controversial CEO Larry Ellison.

Oracle bears seem to think Ellison is pre-occupied with yacht racing. It may be true that he loves boating, but with 42 acquisitions worth more than $30B in less than four years, it's hard to fault Ellison for giving Oracle less than his full attention. Coupled with its formidable $22B in annual revenue, margins have climbed to 42% from 36% five years ago.

Its aggressive buying spree has made Oracle number-one in non-mainframe databases and middleware -- leaving only enterprise applications in which it trails rival SAP (SAP). "Our goal is to be No. 1 in every segment in which we participate," Ellison says. "We are growing faster than [SAP], and I think we can catch them," which he plans to accomplish by buying smaller, industry-specific software developers.

"The name of the game is scale," Ellison says, explaining his aggressiveness. Software developers with annual sales of $250M-$1B average operating margins of 10%. $1B-5B average 16%. The four biggest -- Oracle, SAP, IBM (IBM) and Microsoft (MSFT) average 30%.

Oracle has a great record of maintaining customer bases, both organic and acquired. Maintenance revenues are growing at a 24%/year clip, and Oracle's maintenance-renewal rate is 90%, despite its refusal to reduce fees to snag customers.

Barron's says Oracle should easily maintain 20%+ annual earnings growth. Analysts think shares ($21) are worth $24-30. Ellison agrees: "I think we do deserve a premium multiple. The market gets it right over a long period."

Source: http://seekingalpha.com

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Maryland Institute deploys Oracle applications to automate administrative tasks

Oracle has announced that Maryland Institute College of Art has upgraded to Oracle PeopleSoft Enterprise release 9.0. The college completed its upgrade of PeopleSoft Enterprise Human Capital Management, Campus Solutions, Contributor Relations and Enterprise Portal on time and on budget.

The college initially deployed the applications to automate manual administrative tasks. Since its initial implementation, the college has nearly doubled in size and has more than 1,800 undergraduate and graduate students and nearly 918 faculty and staff members.

Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) has utilized functionality within PeopleSoft Enterprise Release 9.0 Human Capital Management applications for HR Administration, Payroll and Base Benefits; additionally, the college has also deployed PeopleSoft Enterprise 9.0 Campus Solutions for Academic Advisement, Student Records, Student Financials, Financial Aid, Recruiting and Admissions, Contributor Relations and Campus Community.

The college also leverages PeopleSoft Enterprise Portal to deliver the applications in an integrated, self-service environment to faculty, staff and students. The portal upgrade has improved the user experience for the majority of MICA's students and faculty that work on Mac computers and Mozilla Firefox or Apple Safari web browsers. Since upgrading, MICA can now offer online bill/tuition payment, course registration, academic advisement, pay advices, grading and class rosters.

Source: www.cbronline.com

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