Oracle Corp said chief executive officer Mark Hurd will take a leave of absence for health-related reasons. Founder Larry Ellison and Safra Catz, who shares the CEO role with Hurd, will assume Hurd\u2019s responsibilities during his absence.<\/p>\n
In a statement on Wednesday, the company didn\u2019t specify what health issues Hurd is facing or say how long his leave would be.<\/p>\n
Hurd, 62, has served as CEO for five years and has spent a total of nine years at the world\u2019s second-largest software maker, where his responsibilities have included managing the company\u2019s sales organization, marketing and industry-specific software groups. Catz, 57, is a longtime Oracle executive who runs a range of departments including legal, finance and operations.<\/p>\n
Hurd\u2019s tenure as one of Oracle\u2019s CEOs has been marked by a rocky transition to cloud-computing software. Sales have stagnated amid uneven demand for the company\u2019s broad program suite, with cloud-based tools growing quickly and legacy products languishing. Hurd has played a key role evangelizing Oracle\u2019s message to investors and the public.<\/p>\n
He set a goal for the company to clinch a 50% share of the cloud applications market, targeting competitors including Salesforce.com Inc, SAP SE and Workday Inc.<\/p>\n
Oracle shares declined 4% in extended trading following the announcement of Hurd\u2019s leave of absence, and after the company reported fiscal first-quarter sales that fell short of analysts\u2019 projections. The stock had gained 1.5% to $56.29 at the close in New York. Oracle had been scheduled to report earnings on Thursday.<\/p>\n
Revenue in the period that ended Aug. 31 was $9.22 billion, the Redwood City, California-based company said in a separate statement. Analysts on average had expected $9.29 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The sales shortfall underscores the challenge facing Oracle as it shifts its business to cloud computing.<\/p>\n
Net income in the recent period dropped to $2.14 billion, or 63 cents a share, from $2.27 billion, or 57 cents, a year earlier. Excluding certain items, per-share profit was 81 cents, matching the average analyst prediction. Short-term deferred revenue, a measure of future sales, was $10.1 billion.<\/p>\n
Under Catz and Hurd, Oracle has struggled to sustainably grow sales amid strong competition from cloud-computing leaders Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Corp.<\/p>\n
Oracle said in June that more customers were signing up for the company\u2019s crucial Autonomous Database product on a trial basis. Investors are waiting to see whether the company will be able to turn these trials into lucrative contracts. AWS offers a variety of cloud-based databases, which Ellison has criticized for being insufficiently sophisticated or secure.<\/p>\n
Oracle has tried to prevent AWS from getting a $10 billion cloud-computing contract with the Pentagon, suing the US government to put itself back in the running for the deal.<\/p>\n
Hurd came to Oracle after serving as CEO of Hewlett-Packard Co, the computer maker that had been the world\u2019s largest technology company by revenue. Previously, he helmed NCR Corp, which makes store checkout machines and ATMs.<\/p>\n
In an email to employees included in the statement, Hurd said that he had confidence Catz, Ellison and the rest of the management team would do a \u201cterrific job executing\u201d the company\u2019s plans during his leave.<\/p>\n
\u201cThough we all worked hard together to close the first quarter, I\u2019ve decided that I need to spend time focused on my health,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n