Feb 4

Oracle Ups the Ante

Software maker Oracle raises bid for PeopleSoft: We haven’t talked about this one in quite a while, but it’s still on the table.

Business software maker Oracle Corp. raised its hostile takeover bid for rival PeopleSoft Inc. by 33 percent to $26 per share today.

This is the second rasing of the bid. They started at $16 eight months ago, went to $19.50 shortly after, and have now made a big jump. They’re not kidding around — this an all-cash, $9.4 billion offer. PeopleSoft is going to meet to review the new bid but they’ll probably reject it out of hand based on principle.

I just finished an extended profile of Larry Ellison in a great book called “The New Imperialists.” Based on what I learned about him, I don’t think he’s giving up.

by Deane   February 4, 2004 12:13 PM   |
  tags: 
Oracle, PeopleSoft

Comments

by Rob,   February 4, 2004 1:12 PM  

Speaking of hostile takeovers, considering the lawyer fees already involved, couldn't IBM do the same thing to SCO and take them over? I'm not terribly knowledgeable about how hostile takeovers work, but somebody had to have considered this. I think it would be kinda funny to see moving trucks back up to SCO's offices one day and move McBride and crew out onto the street. No doubt there's a good reason IBM hasn't tried this. Anybody care to enlighten me?

by Deane,   February 6, 2004 9:52 AM  

That's an awfully interesting question. I have no idea. Anyone?

by Joe,   February 6, 2004 10:25 AM  

I imagine that IBM might try this if SCO somehow manages to win their suits. By most folks' accounts, SCO's claims are baseless, and a lot of people are expecting them to lose when things actually go to trial. I'd imagine that just letting them lose (and possibly go belly up as a result) is less expensive for IBM than throwing a bunch of money their way and encouraging bad behavior. It would be nice to see IBM take over SCO and just GPL the source in question, thereby resolving the whole issue. This would probably make a lot of the SCO folks very wealthy.

If IBM were to try this though, might we see Microsoft back SCO to prevent it? A lot of people suspect that MS is at least in part behind SCO's litigation.

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