Business-software giant Oracle Corp. posted better-than-expected results for the fiscal second quarter and said that it expected the European Union to unconditionally clear the acquisition of Sun Microsystems Inc. in January.

Calif.-based Oracle Corp. said it earned $1.46 billion or 29 cents per share during the three months to November 30, up from $1.3 billion or 25 cents per share in the year ago period.

Company's revenue jumped 4 per cent to settle at $5.86 billion.

Cost-cutting measures, improved currency trend and better customer maintenance contracts helped the company to break a string of revenue declines.

Commenting on the results, Joel Fishbein from Lazard Capital Markets said, "This suggests corporate technology spending in general is recovering and it should lift the whole tech sector."

Oracle has agreed to concessions to maintain the independence of MySQL, an open-source database it purchased as part of the Sun deal.

In extended trading, Oracle's stock gained 3.3 per cent to $23.60. But, it shed 24 cents to close at $22.88 in the regular session.