With sluggish demand for databases, applications and computer servers having delivered an apparent blow to Oracle’s second quarter earnings, the bigwig business software maker recently reported sales and profits which fell short of the analysts’ expectations.

The second quarter plunge witnessed by Oracle was largely an upshot of the company’s inability to close deals; thereby marking an indication that troubling times are seemingly in the offing in the technology arena.

Going by the second-quarter earnings’ report released by Oracle on Tuesday, the company’s profit, before some costs, during the three-month period ending on November 30 was
54 cents per share; with its revenue, excluding certain items, being $8.81 billion.

The second-quarter figures reported by Oracle clearly missed the analysts’ expectations as per a Bloomberg survey, which had found that the analysts had predicted that the company would report a profit of 57 cents, with the sales being $9.23 billion.

The second-quarter earnings statement released by Oracle implies that big companies as well as government agencies have started making cutbacks in their technology spending. The perception was somewhat underlined by the fact that the Oracle management has projected that the company will likely witness skimpy growth in the ongoing quarter, which will end in February 2012.

The management’s statement, pertaining to a bleak outlook for the current quarter, caused the investors to get alarmed; and resulted in a plunge of over 8.5 percent in Oracle’s shares in after-hours trading