NEW YORK: US business software giant Oracle said Thursday that it expects the European Commission to give the green light in January to its takeover bid for Sun Microsystems.

"We expect the European Commission to unconditionally clear the acquisition of Sun in January," Oracle president Safra Catz said as the Redwood Shores, California, company released its second-quarter earnings.

"I want to thank all of our customers for the overwhelming support they have given us during this process," Catz said in a statement.

EC competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes said earlier this week that talks with Oracle had been "constructive" and the EC is "optimistic that the case will have a satisfactory outcome."

Oracle reported Thursday that its net profit rose 12 percent to 1.46 billion dollars in the second quarter of its financial year.

Revenue was up four percent at 5.86 billion dollars, better than the 5.69 billion dollars expected by Wall Street analysts.

"We delivered results which were substantially better than we expected on both the top and bottom line," Oracle chief financial officer Jeff Epstein said.

"Our solid top line growth, coupled with disciplined expense management, was key in generating 8.4 billion dollars of free cash flow over the last 12 months," Epstein added.

Oracle, the leading provider of database software for businesses, said it continued to make gains against its German rival SAP.

"For the fourth consecutive quarter, Oracle took market share from SAP in every region around the world," said Oracle president Charles Phillips.

The 7.4-billion-dollar deal for Sun, a one-time Silicon Valley star and developer of the popular Java programming language, was approved by Sun shareholders in July and the US Department of Justice in August.

Oracle shares were trading 3.15 percent higher at 23.60 dollars in after-hours electronic trading.