No mention of Oracle is complete without a look at the state of the enterprise software space, which is clearly dominated by Oracle and German archrival SAP.

Oracle's acquisition spree to compete against SAP's more established applications portfolio seems to be reaping dividends. In its last fiscal year, Oracle's revenues in the Asia-Pacific region surpassed the US$2 billion mark for the first time. Its new applications license revenue, which grew by 69 percent, was equally impressive.

Apart from applications, Oracle has also been big on service-oriented architecture, which also underlines its grid computing push. The company has also been keen to tap into the embedded software market, when it started a new business unit this year to integrate Oracle database and middleware products into home and personal devices.

Meanwhile, Oracle continues to assure PeopleSoft and J.D. Edwards customers in the run-up to Project Fusion--a new generation of Oracle applications that aim to meld Oracle's acquired portfolio with its own. In July this year, Oracle announced a tools upgrade for PeopleSoft enterprise software that supports the use of Web services.

This company is listed in Software Infrastructure, Business Applications.