STOCKS TO WATCH: Advanced Fibre, Oracle, Ramtron and Verity

Advanced Fibre should get a little bump Wednesday after announcing it landed a multiyear contract with France Telecom to provide its UMC 1000 multi-service access platform.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The new contract includes the option to deploy AFC's access equipment in the France Telecom metropolitan network and in France Telecom's worldwide subsidiaries.

The pact also provides the opportunity for AFC and France Telecom to jointly specify and develop products should the requirement arise. AFC and France Telecom are also in final negotiations on a services contract for the UMC1000 installed base in France.

Its shares closed off 4 5/8 to 75 5/8 Tuesday.

The company has agreed to buy closely held Octane Software Inc. for stock valued at $3.18 billion.

E.piphany, one of last year's hottest IPOs, makes software to help companies manage customer data and create marketing campaigns. Octane makes software for purchasing through the Web, e-mail or telephone.

Expect Oracle shares to jump Wednesday after it easily topped analysts' estimates in its third quarter, posting a profit of $498 million, or 17 cents a share, on sales of $2.4 billion.

First Call consensus expected the database software developer to earn 13 cents a share in the quarter.

Its shares fell 1 3/4 to 77 ahead of the earnings report.

The $2.4 billion in sales marks an 18 percent improvement compared to the year-ago quarter when it earned $277 million, or 9 cents a share, on sales of $2.1 billion.

Total net income, which includes $432 million from the sale of shares of Liberate Technologies Inc. (Nasdaq: LBRT), rose to $763 million, or 25 cents a share.

In the quarter, database software sales jumped 32 percent to $778 million. Total applications software sales increased 35 percent, to $199 million, with sales of CRM applications growing at a 179 percent rate. Consulting, education and support revenues grew 10 percent to $1.4 billion.

Ramtron also topped analysts' estimates in its fourth quarter, posting a loss of $944,000, or 7 cents a share, on sales of $6.8 million.

In the year-ago quarter, it lost $6.5 million, or 57 cents a share, on sales of $2.5 million.

Analysts were expecting the chipmaker to lose 24 cents a share in the quarter.

Its shares closed off 4 1/8 to 25 5/16 ahead of the earnings report.

Verity should gain ground Wednesday after it easily topped Street estimates in its third quarter.

The information management software provider earned $12.2 million, or 34 cents a share, on sales of $29.2 million.

First Call consensus expected it to pocket 20 cents a share in the quarter.

The $29.2 million in sales marks a 75 percent improvement from $16.7 million in the year-ago period, when Verity earned $3.5 million, or 12 cents per share. Software revenues rose 81 percent, to $22.5 million, or 77 percent of total revenue.

Its shares fell 2 to 58 Tuesday.