Death Clouds Oracle’s Q1 Results
Oracle (NASDAQ:ORCL) had planned to make only one announcement today, its much anticipated Q1 quarterly results. But now the world's second largest software company has become latest among several technology corporations to
report the loss of one of its employees after Tuesday's terrorist attack on
the United States.
Sales account manager Todd Beamer, 32, was among the passengers on United
Airlines Flight 93, which crashed in rural Pennsylvania after being hijacked
as part of Tuesday's attack on U.S. landmarks, a company spokesman confirmed
earlier today.
Beamer was Oracle's sales account manager for the mid-Atlantic region and
lived in Plainsboro, New Jersey. He is father to two boys and his wife is
due to give birth to a third child in January, said Oracle spokesman Mark
Jarvis.
Beamer was a die-hard athlete and sports fan and a former basketball and
baseball star at Los Gatos High School, where he graduated in 1987. There
was no one he relished playing ball with, and watching Chicago Cubs baseball
games with, more than his two sons, David, 3, and Drew, 1.
“He was an incredible dad, and he was fun,” said his sister, Michele Beamer.
“He was a kind and decent person. He was my big brother.”
Meantime, the company continues to search for six consultants who were scheduled to be
in the World Trade Center at the time of the attacks that reduced the
landmark skyscrapers to rubble and left the Pentagon in flames.
With deep the concern for its employees, the company's scheduled Q1 earnings report still continued.
Oracle beat analyst earnings expectations with help from strong services
sales and cost cuts, as it reported earnings earlier today that increased 2
percent to $510.6 million on revenue of $2.2 billion. Earnings per share
increased to 9 cents compared with 8 cents in Q1 last year. The company
announced earlier Thursday that it would postpone its analyst conference
call scheduled with the company's management until at least Monday.
A memorial service for Beamer will be held Sunday afternoon at the Princeton
Alliance Church in Plainsboro, Jarvis said.
