New York, June 17: Business software group Peoplesoft, bitterly fighting a 5.1-billion-dollar bid from oracle, said yesterday it would accelerate and sweeten its own takeover of rival J.D. Edwards. Peoplesoft advanced the timetable for a deal and threw cash into the pot as part of its 1.75-billion-dollar offer for J.D. Edwards, which would create the world's second-largest business software group.
"The amended terms of the transaction will minimize customer uncertainty arising from oracle's recent tender offer," Peoplesoft and J.D. Edwards said in a joint statement.
Peoplesoft has described a hostile oracle takeover bid, announced unexpectedly last week, as an effort to "disrupt" the company during its attempt to merge with J.D. Edwards.
The increasingly rancorous struggle between Peoplesoft and Oracle is shaping up as the roughest battle in the technology world since the internet bubble burst three years ago. Oracle said it was pressing ahead with its bid to gobble up Peoplesoft regardless of the latest announcement.
"This move does not deter oracle and our offer remains before shareholders," Oracle spokesman Jim Finn said in a statement.
"If you consider that Peoplesoft and J.D. Edwards put together the best financing approach when they announced their original merger, this sub-optimal approach can only be a ploy to preserve management's self-interest," he said.
On Friday, Peoplesoft said it had sued oracle in a court in California to put an end to what it described as a sham tender offer aimed at destroying Peoplesoft's business.
Bureau Report