Oracle has once again extended its offer to acquire
PeopleSoft, this time until 31 December. It also disclosed that the
number of shares tendered in favour of the merger has fallen from a
month ago.
Oracle announced its $5.1bn unsolicited bid for PeopleSoft in
June and, in the face of strong resistance from PeopleSoft, has
since raised its offer to $7.3bn. It has renewed its bid for the
company at least five times, with the most recent offer set to
expire on 17 October.
At of the close of business on Friday, a total of 24,812,259
shares had been tendered in and not withdrawn from the offer,
representing about 8% of all outstanding shares, said Oracle
spokeswoman Deborah Lilienthal. That's down from 38,718,737 shares
at the close of business on 4 September.
The spokeswoman argued that the drop in tendered shares does not
indicate that support for the acquisition is waning. PeopleSoft
shareholders do not have an incentive to tender their shares in
favour of the merger while it is still under review by the US
Department of Justice for potential antitrust concerns, she
said.
Oracle has said it will continue to extend the deadline for
acceptance of the deal until it reaches its goal of acquiring a
majority of PeopleSoft's outstanding shares. The company is as
committed to the merger today as it was when it first announced its
offer, Oracle spokesman Jim Finn said.
PeopleSoft executives have been dismissing the Oracle bid as a
dead issue and have been concentrating their energies on
integrating PeopleSoft's products with those of JD Edwards, which
PeopleSoft acquired in July
James Niccolai writes for IDG News
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