Federal Judge Rules Oracle can Bid for PeopleSoft

terrymaster69 writes "The NY Times reports (free reg, required) that Oracle may have the go ahead to continue its hostile bidding for PeopleSoft. The Justice Department had previously tried to paint the merger as anti-competitive in the corporate services software market. 'Judge Vaughn R. Walker of the Federal District Court in San Francisco rejected the government's definition of the market as too narrow, noting that the software business is particularly dynamic, with a host of current and emerging competitors in that area including Microsoft.'"

Comments

Point

[leonmergen]

Well, I think they do have a point there... there is plenty of competition around in the database market, and Oracle would still have to compete in a 'real' way - as far as I can see they can't be able to abuse their market position, simply because there's enough competition.

On the other hand, a big corporation getting even bigger isn't really a good thing...

Re:Point

[lucabrasi999]

there is plenty of competition around in the database market

This case not related to the database market. Oracle is trying to acquire PeopleSoft in order to improve their position in the applications market. This includes things like HR, Payroll, Accounting and Purchasing systems.

Re:Point

[Anonymous Coward]

Microsoft have considered buying SAP have they? Don't make us all laugh now. SAP is as big, if not bigger, than Microsoft. Now, Microsoft and SAP were at one point talking about a merger but it was only ever at a very simple level, and nothing ever came to it. Besides which if Microsoft and SAP were to announce a merger the DoJ and EU Monopolies Comission would have a field day.

Re:Point

[andy1307]

I think this is a dreadful decision, Oracle's ERP offering is horrid, and the intent is simply to kill a competitor.

If Oracle "killed" Peoplesoft, customers would simply move to SAP. This takeover will tie peoplesoft to the oracle database product. With Oracle moving to support linux, maybe we'll see more linux support. More enterprise applications running on linux is always a good thing. There is only so much economic value to a gameboy running linux.

Be interesting to see if they actually acquire now

[base3]

Oracle's real interest was making sure that PeopleSoft didn't acquire J.D. Edwards--but Oracle failed in that endeavor. I don't think Oracle actually wants to buy PeopleSoft, but is now forced to "go through the motions," lest they be caught in their act of blatant tortious interference in trying to sabotage the Edwards deal. My guess is that Oracle will lowball the offer and now allow the issue to die. This doesn't even consider the poison pill provisions allowing PeopleSoft clients refunds if Oracle buys PeopleSoft.

Re:not out of the woods

[jedidiah]

ERP systems are far less interchangeable than low quality hamburgers. Claiming that there are hundreds of Lilluputians in the market does nothing to counter the problem of market dominance by a few small players.

The Judge's reasoning would only work if someone could point to a 4th player willing, ready and able to take up the slack when the #3 player sabotages the #1 player.

Re:Well, this is just great.

[qray]

Most banks are going to reproduce their own checks rather than relying on the fed to do it. That was the actual system I was working on.

I imagine there's a compiled list of banks accepting electronic checks and/or a list of ones that don't. All incoming checks get shredded, and the ones that go to banks that can't handle electronic transfers get the replacement check.

I agree the savings doesn't seem like much, but when you're talking large banks and millions of checks a penny or two can make quite a difference.