DoJ to Block Oracle’s PeopleSoft Bid
UPDATE:The Department of Justice has dealt a blow to Oracle's Attorneys General of Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New “We really believe Oracle, PeopleSoft and SAP provide the The decision is the next crucial event in the battle for control of Because such litigation will extend beyond PeopleSoft's annual shareholders' meeting on March 25, Oracle said it would withdraw its recommended slate of directors and will not solicit proxies at the meeting. It also extended its latest tender offer of $26 per share for PeopleSoft, an 18.8 percent premium, to June 25, 2004. The previous deadline was March 12. The DoJ's announcement came just before the close of regular trading Thursday. PeopleSoft closed down 35 cents at $21.78. Oracle's share's closed up 9 cents at $13.28. Clint Boulton, a senior writer at CIO, covers IT leadership, digital transformation, and the CIO role. He was a content marketer for Dell APEX. Inspire IT leaders with tales about the advantages of multi-cloud infrastructures. Dunning-Kruger bias is something that keeps IT leaders sceptical, but curious nonetheless. $9.4 billion hostile bid to purchase rival software maker PeopleSoft
, saying Thursday that it would hurt competition, stymie innovation and jack up prices in the industry.
Assistant Attorney General R. Hewitt Pate, who heads the DoJ's Antitrust
Division, on Thursday said the DoJ would file a civil lawsuit in U.S. District Court in
San Francisco to block the proposed purchase.
York, North Dakota, and Texas are joining the DoJ's lawsuit.
“We believe this transaction is anticompetitive–pure and simple,” said Pate.
“Under any traditional merger analysis this deal substantially lessens competition in an important market. Blocking this deal protects competition that benefits major businesses, as well as government agencies that depend on competition to get the best value for taxpayers' dollars.”
Pate noted that only Oracle, PeopleSoft and Germany's SAP compete to sell the human
resource management and financial management software for large enterprises and that removing one of them would limit choice.
On a conference call with reporters Thursday afternoon, Pate reiterated his press statements, and said customers rely on the software provided by these players to
automate their businesses to reduce operating costs.
“We took this action because it's the right thing to do to protect
competition in an important market for businesses and government agencies,”
Pate said.
products people need. And if that market goes from three down to two, you
take choice away from people. We think that in this market and under any
traditional merger analysis this is an anticompetitive deal.
Pate also said he believed the DoJ has collected enough evidence to be
successful to prove its case. While he didn't offer many specifics about his decision-making process, Pate did acknowledge that the decision stems from speaking to an unspecified number of customers who feared that the deal would adversely affect their businesses.
PeopleSoft, which Oracle has been trying to acquire since June of last year.
Industry reaction
Oracle blasted the deal DoJ's announcement, saying the department followed an aggressive lobbying campaign by PeopleSoft management and vowed to “vigorously challenge” the Department of Justice's decision.
PeopleSoft CEO Craig Conway said in a statement that the decision confirms
the PeopleSoft board of directors' stance that the deal undervalued the
Pleasonton, Calif., company and was anticompetitive.
“Now that the antitrust day of reckoning has arrived and the Justice
Department has announced its decision to sue to block the transaction, it is
time for Oracle to abandon its efforts to acquire the Company,” Conway said.
The board must still face shareholders at a meeting March 25 to decide on
new members.
Robert Christopher, an attorney specializing in litigation on antitrust for
technology companies at Coudert Brothers in Palo, Alto, Calif., expressed
relief — but not surprise — at the DoJ's decision.
“All of the papers and experts have been predicting this for several weeks,”
Christopher told internetnews.com. But I think this is good for
innovation and competition because in the long term Oracle will not swallow
up a somewhat different mixture of products that PeopleSoft brings to the
marketplace.”
Christopher also said it is likely the European Commission, which has
extended its decisions due date to May after requesting more information
from Oracle, will follow the DoJ's move.
Deal far from dead, analyst say
Mike Dominy, analyst of the Business Applications & Commerce practice at The
Yankee Group, said the industry will be watching to see whether Oracle has a back-up
proposal waiting in the wings.
For example, he said the DoJ might be willing to accept the deal if
Oracle agreed to acquire PeopleSoft, but then divest itself of J.D. Edwards,
which PeopleSoft acquire last July for $1.75 billion. That might soften the DoJ's position that Oracle's proposal is anticompetitive, Dominy told internetnews.com.
Ken Marlin, a mergers and acquisitions investment banker with specialist advisory firm Marlin & Associates, called the DoJ's decision an “unusual and significant” call that could cost Oracle millions of dollars in litigation fees that could only be resolved after many years, if it decides to fight. And it could only then be facing a much-changed industry sector than today's.
On the other hand, he continued, a lot of interested parties might urge
Oracle to do just that, “if for no other reason than to beat back the
Justice department on what constitutes anticompetitive behavior” and to establish updated case law on antitrust legislation.
Erin Joyce contributed to this report
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