PeopleSoft And J.D. Edwards And Oracle: The Saga
Continues
In case you didn’t notice, with the
government’s permission, PeopleSoft was able to close its deal to
purchase J. D. Edwards this week.
That means if Oracle is to buy them the price just went up
(since PeopleSoft both spent some of its cash and issued more
stock).
In the meantime, Oracle extended its hostile
tender offer, in an effort to wait out the government’s inquiry
into possible antitrust aspects of its potential acquisition of
PeopleSoft.
Oracle also held some town meetings with
PeopleSoft customers, hoping to convince them that Oracle is really
a good guy and that they should stop trying to keep the deal from
going forward. The
customers appear, according to press reports, to be largely
unconvinced. Educational
customers, who rely on PeopleSoft for functions suited to their
needs, are particularly concerned.
Both PeopleSoft and Oracle, in the meantime, have
announced their quarterly financials and to some surprise,
PeopleSoft did better than expected.
Oracle claims that’s because of the guarantee PeopleSoft
offered customers that it would pay them two to five times their
purchase price for software if Oracle took over and discontinued the
software. Oracle has
estimated that this might cost Oracle as much as $350 million.
PeopleSoft claims the increased sales have nothing to do with
the guarantee.
Some voices on Wall Street are now questioning the wisdom of the Oracle
offer, pointing out that as it becomes more expensive, its value to
Oracle may become marginal.
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