Barron's: Oracle's stock ready for a move?

Not many software companies can survive 30 years. But, that's what Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL) has been able to do.

In fact, according to a cover piece in Barron's [a paid publication], it looks like the company may be poised for continued success.

The company's CEO and co-founder, Larry Ellison, is a legend in the software business. He has battled with biggies like IBM (NYSE: IBM), SAP (NYSE: SAP) and Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT). He has also conquered a variety of database operators.

But, Ellison has also been bulking up his company with savvy acquisitions, such as PeopleSoft, Siebel and BEA Systems (spending over $30 billion on dealmaking since 2005). Basically, he believes that business software is a fairly mature business and needs consolidation. What's more, the business is highly sticky. That is, once you implement an ERP system or database platform, it's pretty tough to make a change.

So far, the results have been solid. Over the past year, operating margins have gone from 36% to 42%. Then again, Oracle has benefited from economies of scale, such as with R&D, sales, customer support, and so on.

What's more, Oracle has lots of cross-sale opportunities. In fact, software licenses are up 29% to $4.4 billion. Keep in mind that this will be a source of future growth because of the ongoing maintenance fees.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Edgar Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements. He also operates MergerBook.com.