Not buying it

Several times over the past few weeks,  Oracle execs have stressed that the company is not unduly exposed to the various earthquakes afflicting financial institutions worldwide.

That’s hard to swallow.

Especially given the company’s self-proclaimed leadership in the financial services vertical. Sure, customers feel compelled to renew their Oracle licenses but when entire companies disappear and tens of thousands of jobs evaporate, all the IT vendors selling into that wounded marketwill sustain collateral damage.  Gartner  estimates that 18% of Oracle revenues come from that finance segment.  Interesting analog: Goldman Sachs, by all accounts, weathered this financial meltdown storm nicely but its largest trading partner AIG blew up. The next thing you know, Goldman Sachs is a lowly commercial bank waiting to install ATMs.

Safra Catz (again) told analysts not to worry last week. Well, kinda.

“Our exposure to the banks in the U.S. I talked about during the earnings call. We have a whole lot of customers, most of them aren’t banks, we feel ok. If there’s a complete global meltdown where we are all foraging for food, none of you will be worried about Oracle. “

Feel better? Me neither.