(Adds details on cloud sales, background on cloud push, shares)

Dec 14 (Reuters) - Oracle Corp reported better-than-expected quarterly profit and sales but the company's shares dipped in extended trading as revenue in its fast-growing cloud-based business fell short of analysts' estimates.

The company's shares were down nearly 3 percent in after-market trading on Thursday.

Revenue in cloud-based business rose 44 percent to $1.52 billion in the second quarter.

Analysts on average had expected total cloud revenue of $1.56 billion, according to Thomson Reuters data.

A late entrant into the rapidly growing cloud-based software business, Oracle has aggressively stepped up efforts to bridge the gap with rivals such as Amazon.com Inc, Microsoft Corp and Salesforce.com Inc.

Revenue in Oracle's traditional software licensing business, by far still its largest, rose 3 percent to $6.31 billion.

The company's net income rose to $2.23 billion, or 52 cents per share, in the second quarter ended Nov. 30, from $2.03 billion, or 48 cents per share, a year earlier.

Total adjusted revenue rose 6.2 percent to $9.63 billion, beating expectations of $9.57 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

On an adjusted basis, Oracle earned 70 cents per share, beating analysts' estimate of a profit of 68 cents.

Revenue rose to $9.62 billion from $9.04 billion.

(Reporting by Sonam Rai in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila)