New York: Software major Oracle Corp registered an impressive 78 percent growth in net income to $2.1 billion in the quarter ended February 28, driven by robust sales of new software licenses and the benefit derived from its acquisition of Sun Microsystems during the period. The company's revenues were up 37 percent to $8.8 billion in the third quarter of the 2011 fiscal, Oracle Corp said in a statement. Oracle said new software license sales, a pertinent element in the company's growth, rose by 29 per cent to USD 2.2 billion. The company, which deals in software, database systems and server hardware, said the performance was broad-based, with all geographic areas reporting revenue growth of 30 percent or higher. Oracle's revenue from the hardware business stood at $ 1 billion. In January, Oracle completed the acquisition of Sun Microsystems for $7.4 billion. "Our hardware product gross margins increased to 55 percent in the quarter so we are now completely confident that we will exceed the $ 1.5 billion profit goal we set for the overall Sun business for the current fiscal year," Oracle President Mark Hurd said. The margins were the result of strong demand for Exadata and Exalogic database and cloud computing products, he said. Oracle also said it has raised its quarterly dividend by 20 percent to 6 cents a share.