The Oracle has spoken. And once again, it is good news. Mere months ago, the only voice that could be heard was “the sky is falling.” Now, however, the situation is reversing. The technology sector as a whole is wondering why everyone is talking about a recession. Nobody is talking about a recession in Redwood Shores, California, home of the database mogul, Oracle. Instead, they are developing, planning, and expanding like never before—in the middle of a recession like never before.

2008 was a good year for Oracle. As software sales shot up early in the year, they glanced back at IBM, whose sales they had already eclipsed. By the end of the 2008 calendar year, Oracle had posted a 29% growth, and profits to the tune of 5 and a half billion.

But that was only the prelude to their success story. Early in 2009, As congress bantered around big numbers to save big business, Oracle was bantering around big numbers to buy big business. They picked Sun Microsystems, and after a few high-level talks, Sun Microsystems became part of Oracle on April 20. Nobody makes mammoth acquisitions during a recession. But Oracle just did.

As Oracle closed the books on the third quarter of their fiscal year (February 28), they posted a modest profit—over 4%. Catz, president of Oracle claimed, “We are running our business at record operating margins.” And nobody doubted him.

Still, Oracle shows no sign of slowing. Since 1999, Oracle has gobbled up 54 companies in its acquisition-centered growth strategy. At more than five acquisitions a year, Oracle has proven that it has a big appetite. Who is next? With a war chest of around 12 billion, and a steadily climbing growth rate, they are proving that the recession has nothing on the technology sector.

The News Corp owned MySpace has announced that MySpace CEO Chris DeWolfe will be stepping down but will continue to serve on the board of MySpace China and will be a strategic advisor to the company.

The decision was a mutual agreement between News Corp Chief Digital Officer Jonathan Miller and DeWolfe.

Miller is also in discussions with Tom Anderson, MySpace’s president about him taking on a new role in the organization.

“Chris and Tom are true pioneers and we greatly value the tremendous job they’ve done in growing MySpace into what it is today,” said Mr. Miller.

“Thanks largely to their vision, MySpace has become a vibrant creative community with 130 million passionate followers worldwide. It is an enormously successful property and we look forward to building on its achievements with a new management structure we’ll announce in the near future.”

News Corp is reportedly going after former Facebook Chief Operating Officer Owen Van Natta as a possible replacement for DeWolfe.

Everyone is talking about getting stimulus money these days. Where there is money to be had, there will be eager hands to take it, and the technology sector is one area that Obama intends to stimulate. The need is for wider access to high-speed broadband. Dealing with the status quo is “holding us back as individuals, it has cost our economy billions, and things are only going to get worse if we don’t do something about it.” That’s Michael Copps, FCC commissioner, speaking in an interview with Business Week last month. But the excitement turned to disappointment as talks lagged and plans bogged down.

But what about now? Amidst the delayed talks, an unclear plan, and no new broadband access, people are wondering if that much-talked-about $7.2 billion is funding anything but talk right now.

Things are moving, however. According to a fresh report from Business Week, several states have stepped up to receive the allocated funding for wider broadband access. Among the states that expect to receive funding are Colorado, Ohio, Tennessee, and Virginia.

Local governments are now getting a say in the game, and that has helped push the issue forward faster. State and municipal authorities have a more accurate perspective of exactly how the broadband stimulus plan could drive economic development in their areas-and they want it, badly. To them, it’s about more than putting broadband access in rural homes and businesses; it’s about creating jobs and reviving businesses.

There is more good news. Now that local governments are involved, the creative juices are flowing as to exactly how the money will be distributed. “We would like to see public-private partnerships to expand the deployment of broadband,” is the wish of Virginia’s Technology Secretary, Aneesh Chopra, who understands that private companies, working responsibly, can help drive the economic development. From the mom-and-pop Internet service provider to the mammoth AT&T, that could be very good news. Putting the task into the lap of a private company means that the money comes with fewer strings attached.

And while this does not hail the end of the recession for tech companies by any means, it is at least a bit of good newswith more to come, perhaps.

YouTube and Universal Music Group are working together to launch a music and video entertainment service called VEVO that will feature UMG’s professional video content.

VEVO will launch later this year using technology provided by Google’s YouTube. The two companies will also share advertising revenue. On YouTube, VEVO will have its own branded channel in addition to the standalone site.

“We believe that at launch, VEVO will already have more traffic than any other music video site in the United States and in the world,” said Doug Morris, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer of Universal Music Group.

“And this traffic represents the most sought after demographic for advertisers, especially as advertising dollars continue their shift from old media to new.”

At launch, people will be able to access UMG’s entire catalog of music video content on VEVO, as well as artist-generated content and user-generated content hosted on YouTube.

Currently, UMG’s YouTube video channel has more than 3.5 billion views, making the UMG channel the most watched on YouTube.

“Technology has allowed fans to discover music in endless ways while creating new business opportunities for artists and labels alike,” said Eric Schmidt, Chairman of the Board & Chief Executive Officer of Google Inc.

U.S. online traffic to classifieds Web sites increased 84 percent in February 2009 compared with last year according to a new report from Hitwise.

As the state of the U.S. economy has declined, visits to classifieds Web sites have continued to increase, up 28 percent from December 2008 to February 2009.

“Consumers have embraced free classifieds as a way to generate income by selling personal items, while others take advantage of the deals available at the fire sales,” said Heather Dougherty, Hitwise research director.

“Currently the economy is driving the growth among online classifieds, but satisfied buyers may continue to turn to the Web sites when researching purchases.”

The market share of U.S. Internet visits increased 90 percent to the Craigslist Cities custom category year-over-year in February 2009, while visits to all other classifieds grew 22 percent. This trend indicates that the U.S. economy may be boosting visits to classifieds Web sites and contributing to the recent increase in visits to both Craigslist and all other classifieds.