Despite a negligible slip in its second-quarter profit - the first in three years, and largely owing to a stronger dollar hobbling its international sales - Oracle Corp. reassured investors by predicting it would thrive the deepening recession.

The reassurance offered late Thursday eclipsed any concerns raised by the Redwood Shores, Calif.-based company's fiscal second-quarter results, which were distorted by wild currency fluctuations due to the ongoing financial crisis.

At a conference call on Thursday, Safra Catz, Oracle's co-president, said that given the present state of the economy, "currency was not the only news going on in the quarter in the outside world, and yet we feel just extremely good about our results."

For the quarter that ended November 30, the company's net income was $1.296 billion - or 25 cents a share - down from last year's $1.303 billion - also 25 cents a share. The stronger dollar cut 4 cents a share from this quarter's per share earnings.

Like other software makers, Oracle has noted a drop in the amount of money its customers spend on financial and personnel management applications.

Gartner analyst Kenneth Chin said: "People just aren't buying big ticket software applications." But Chin added that maintenance revenue and strong sales of databases should hedge the company against the drop in IT expenditure.

Oracle has made a string of large acquisitions over the past decade, giving the company an income-flow from maintenance revenues. The revenue Oracle makes on maintenance sales is almost double its revenue from selling software products.