in software license updates and product support revenues. Software license updates and product support revenues in fiscal 2007 include revenue growth of $310 million from Siebel, $37 million from i-flex, $19 million from Hyperion, and $55 million from other recently acquired companies.

 

Excluding the effect of currency rate fluctuations, software license updates and product support expenses increased due to higher salary and benefits associated with increased headcount to support the expansion of our customer base, higher amortization expenses resulting from additional intangible assets acquired during fiscal 2007 and fiscal 2006 and higher stock-based compensation expenses. Software license updates and product support expenses include $16 million in incremental expenses from both i-flex and Hyperion. Total software license updates and product support margin as a percentage of revenues remained constant as intangible asset amortization expenses and stock-based compensation expenses grew much faster than revenues and offset the lower growth in other operating expenses.

 

Services

 

Services consist of consulting, On Demand and education.

 

Consulting:   Consulting revenues are earned by providing services to customers in the design, implementation, deployment and upgrade of our database and middleware software products as well as applications software products. The cost of providing consulting services consists primarily of personnel related expenditures.



Fiscal 2008 Compared to Fiscal 2007:   Consulting revenue growth was positively affected by foreign currency rate fluctuations of 6 percentage points in fiscal 2008. Excluding the effect of currency rate fluctuations, consulting revenues increased during fiscal 2008 primarily due to an increase in application product implementations associated with the sales of our application software products and incremental revenues from our recent acquisitions, primarily Hyperion and BEA. BEA added $16 million to our consulting revenue growth in fiscal 2008. Excluding the effect of currency rate fluctuations, the Americas contributed 36%, EMEA contributed 35% and Asia Pacific contributed 29% to the increase in consulting revenues.

 

Consulting expenses were adversely impacted by 6 percentage points of unfavorable currency variations during fiscal 2008. Excluding the effect of currency rate fluctuations, consulting expenses increased during fiscal 2008 as a result of higher personnel related expenses attributable to higher headcount levels and third party contractor expenses that supported our increase in revenues. BEA added $16 million to our consulting expense growth in fiscal 2008. Total consulting margin as a percentage of revenues remained constant during fiscal 2008 as margin improvements in the EMEA and Asia Pacific regions were offset by expense growth in the Americas region and for i-flex and an increase in our amortization of intangible asset expenses.

 

Fiscal 2007 Compared to Fiscal 2006:   Excluding the effect of currency rate fluctuations, consulting revenues increased during fiscal 2007 primarily due to an increase in our application product implementations associated with