TECHNOLOGY & TELECOMMUNICATIONS

Oracle Earnings Soar: The Redwood City, Calif.-based company said its fiscal fourth-quarter net income rose a better-than-expected 47% on strong sales of its database software products and a surge in international sales. Oracle Corp., the biggest publisher of database computer programs, said net income for the quarter ended May 31 rose to $266.3 million, or 40 cents a share, from $181.7 million, or 27 cents, in the year-earlier quarter. Sales rose 44% to $1.46 billion from $1.02 billion. Wall Street expected Oracle to earn 37 cents a share, the average estimate of 22 analysts from Zacks Investment Research Corp. Oracle writes software that helps companies store and retrieve huge amounts of information.