In a completely uncharacteristic and counter-culture move - the recession has slashed a lot of dividends - Oracle is going to pay out its very first dividend. It's going to pay five cents a share starting in May at the cost of about a billion a year.

No, it's not coming out of Larry's boat money or his fighter jet fund; Oracle has $8.2 billion sitting in the bank along with debt from its perpetual buying spree.

Presumably Oracle's saying it's relatively recession-proof and undervalued since its shares recently hit a 52-week low.

It announced the dividend when it posted its better-than-expected fiscal Q3 results and showed a 1% drop in earnings to $1.33 billion on revenues up 1.9% to $5.45 billion. New license revenues were down 6% to $1.5 billion but up 3% in constant currency; software revenues in general were up 5% to $4.4 billion. Maintenance revenues were up 11%.

Oracle complained about the stronger dollar; it makes half its money overseas and its numbers were whacked.

This quarter it's expecting revenues will be down 10%-14% compared to last year, say to $6.23 billion-$6.52 billion, and new licenses down 17%-27%. Wall Street was thinking $7 billion. Fiscal Q4 has historically been robust for Oracle.