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Oracle wins antitrust case, can pursue PeopleSoft

AFP, San Francisco
Oracle can pursue its 7.7 billion hostile takeover bid for rival business software maker PeopleSoft, a federal judge has ruled in a stunning setback for
the US Justice Department.
US District Judge Vaughn Walker, in a ruling late Thursday, found that the government failed to prove its antitrust case against Oracle.
Walker put his 164-page
ruling on hold for 10 days to allow Justice to appeal.
"This decision puts the onus squarely on the board of PeopleSoft to meet with us and to redeem their poison pill so that the shareholders can accept our offer," Oracle Chairman Jeff Henley said after the decision.
PeopleSoft shares shot up 2.40 dollars, or 13 percent, to 20.35 in pre-open trading.
The ruling marked a surprising shift in one of the most bitter corporate takeover battles to hit Silicon Valley and the high-tech industry.
Oracle, based in Redwood Shores, California, formally renewed its request to start negotiations with PeopleSoft, based in nearby Pleasanton, California, in a letter after the ruling was announced.
"We are disappointed in the
Court's decision," said R. Hewitt Pate, assistant attorney general in charge of the Justice Department's antitrust division, in a statement late Thursday.
"We believe the facts and evidence in this case support our position that Oracle's proposed acquisition of PeopleSoft would result in a substantial lessening of competition" in the enterprise software field. "The Department is considering its options."
The Justice Department had argued that Oracle, PeopleSoft and Germany's SAP are the only companies that develop and sell the high-end integrated human resource and financial management software used by big companies and government agencies.
While the ruling is a victory for Oracle and its combative chief executive Larry Ellison, the
business software developer still faces a possible appeal from the Justice Department, as well as other court and regulatory hurdles.
PeopleSoft has been actively opposing the takeover plan.
PeopleSoft said in a statement that it "will review the implications" of the court decision, but noted that its board had rejected each of Oracle's offers as inadequate.
Also, PeopleSoft said it was pursuing its litigation against Oracle, seeking more than one billion dollars plus punitive damages for its rivals alleged "unfair business practices, including a deliberate campaign to mislead PeopleSoft's customers and disrupt its business."