These increases in working capital were partially offset by cash used in fiscal 2008 to pay for our acquisitions (primarily BEA) and to repurchase our common stock.

 

Cash, Cash Equivalents and Marketable Securities:   Cash and cash equivalents primarily consist of deposits held at major banks, money market funds, Tier-1 commercial paper, U.S. Treasury obligations, U.S. government agency and government sponsored enterprise obligations, and other securities with original maturities of 90 days or less. Marketable securities primarily consist of time deposits held at major banks, Tier-1 commercial paper, corporate notes, U.S. Treasury obligations and U.S. government agency and government sponsored enterprise obligations. The increase in cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities at May 31, 2009 in comparison to May 31, 2008 was due to an increase in cash generated from our operating activities. Cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities include $11.3 billion held by our foreign subsidiaries as of May 31, 2009. The amount of cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities that we report in U.S. Dollars for a significant portion of the cash held by these subsidiaries is subject to translation adjustments caused by changes in foreign currency exchange rates as of the end of each respective reporting period (the offset to which is recorded to accumulated other comprehensive income on our consolidated balance sheet). As the U.S. Dollar strengthened against most major international currencies during fiscal 2009, the amount of cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities that we reported in U.S. Dollars for these subsidiaries declined relative to what we would have reported using a constant currency rate as of May 31, 2008. Our cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities balances were also partially offset by cash used for our acquisitions, the repayment of $1.0 billion of senior notes in May 2009, the repurchases of our common stock (see discussion above), and the payment of cash dividends to our stockholders.



The increase in cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities at May 31, 2008 in comparison to May 31, 2007 is due to the issuance of $5.0 billion of senior notes in April 2008 and an increase in our operating cash flows resulting primarily from an increase in net income, partially offset by cash used for our acquisitions (primarily BEA), net repayments of our short-term commercial paper notes, and repurchases of our common stock.

 

Days sales outstanding, which is calculated by dividing period end accounts receivable by average daily sales for the quarter, was 58 days at May 31, 2009 compared with 63 days at May 31, 2008. The days sales outstanding calculation excludes the adjustment that reduces our acquired software license updates and product support obligations to fair value. Our decline in days sales outstanding is primarily due to the improved timeliness of our collections efforts and the mix of our total revenues during the fourth quarter of fiscal 2009, which weighted more heavily toward our license updates and product support revenues (such revenues generally have a lower DSO than our revenues from our