San Francisco  - Business software giant Oracle saw its profit slip slightly in the second quarter amid a tightening economy and a stronger dollar.

The Silicon Valley company said late Thursday that it earned 1.27 billion dollars, or 25 cents a share, down from 1.3 billion dollars, also at 25 cents a share, in the same period a year ago. Revenue rose 6 per cent to 5.6 billion dollars.

Oracle said that excluding the impact of the stronger dollar, it would have earned an extra 4 cents a share.

For its current third quarter, Oracle said that the negative impact of the strong dollar will linger and that it expected revenue growth of between 1 per cent and 4 per cent.

Second quarter sales of software licenses, which indicates new business, fell 3 per cent to 1.6 billion dollars while maintenance of existing software, rose 14 per cent compared to the same period a year earlier, to 2.9 billion dollars.

Oracle also was upbeat about its on-demand software sales, where it faces tough competition from rivals like Salesforce. com.

Oracle Chief Executive Larry Ellison said that now when the company goes head to head with Salesforce. com for new customers, "We win more deals than we lose, and that's new in the last couple of quarters."

"We signed our largest on-demand sales force automation contract this quarter," said Ellison. "This was just one of several recent wins over Salesforce. com. We also sold our first database machine, launching an all new and important business for Oracle." (dpa)