Oracle to seal PeopleSoft deal by July
Oracle's proposed all cash acquisition of PeopleSoft should go through by July, according to its chief financial officer, Jeff Henley.
Link: Oracle in hostile bid for PeopleSoft
Speaking on a conference call today, Henley said a letter has already been sent to the PeopleSoft board, and he expects the company to make an official offer on Monday. ‘We think this could all happen fairly soon. We expect the transaction to be completed in July,’ he said.
Larry Ellison, Oracle chief executive, said he had been looking at the deal for over a year following an approach by PeopleSoft president and chief operating officer, Craig Conway.’I can only say what Craig Conway said to me a year ago, which is that the two businesses together would be a very formidable player in the market and I couldn’t agree with him more,’ Ellison said.
He said the acquisition would be very healthy for the industry. ‘There’s a very strong player in the market already out there in SAP and you have an upcoming player which is making billions of dollars in investment, in Microsoft. I think the combination of Oracle and PeopleSoft will make a third strong player in the market. That’s what we need, more competition.’
Dennis Keeling, chief executive of BASDA, the international software standards body, said the deal has a ‘good chance’ of going through.