Oracle's battle began in June last year when it submitted an
offer to buy rival firm PeopleSoft. At the time the bid was largely
seen as a spoiler to prevent PeopleSoft amicably acquiring another
player in the market, JD Edwards.
That acquisition went ahead, but Oracle has stuck to its plans
to buy PeopleSoft, despite lawsuits filed against it by PeopleSoft,
JD Edwards and the State of Connecticut. Antitrust investigations
by the Department of Justice and the European Commission were also
instigated.
The Commission has been investigating the takeover since
October, and launched a more detailed inquiry in November,
expressing concern that if the deal goes ahead, SAP of Germany will
become Oracle's only major competitor in the market for enterprise
software.
An Oracle spokesman yesterday expressed confidence that, when
his company has made its case, the Commission "will see how
competitive this business truly is".
