The battle began in June 2003, when Oracle, a major player in
the enterprise software market, submitted an offer to purchase
rival 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 stuck to its plans to
buy PeopleSoft.
It has been an uphill struggle, with lawsuits filed against the
company by PeopleSoft, JD Edwards and the State of Connecticut.
Antitrust investigations by the Department of Justice and the
European Commission were also instigated and then dismissed.
Within PeopleSoft relations have been equally strained, with
shareholders taking legal action against their own board over a
so-called "poison pill" that effectively upped the price of the
company, and CEO Craig Conway losing his job after the board lost
faith in his ability to lead the company.
But hostilities appear to be at an end following today's
announcement that the companies have managed to agree a merger, in
terms of which a subsidiary of Oracle will acquire all PeopleSoft
shares for $26.50 per share in cash, amounting to around $10.3
billion in total.
"After careful consideration, we believe this revised offer
provides good value for PeopleSoft stockholders and represents a
substantial increase in value from October," said A. George "Skip"
Battle, Chairman of PeopleSoft's Transaction Committee. "This has
been a long, emotional struggle, and our employees have
consistently performed well under the most challenging of
circumstances."
The offer now has to be accepted by shareholders, but meantime
all legal action has been suspended between the parties. The suits
will be dismissed once the merger goes through, most probably in
early January.
