Friday, October 08, 2004

PeopleSoft - Oracle Soap Opera

Everyone loves a good drama... The attempted hostile takeover of PeopleSoft by Oracle has all the makings of a good movie.

Craig Conway (the recently fired CEO of PeopleSoft) used to work for Larry Ellison (the founder of Oracle). It seems like this takeover offer is more personal pride and vengeance than sound business practices.

Granted, by purchasing a smaller competitor, Oracle could gain some market share. But they have stated that they will not enhance or create future versions of PeopleSoft's offerings, thus alienating PeopleSoft's existing clients, especially those who have large scale investments in PeopleSoft software. Would you buy software from a company who attempted to shutdown the software you were using and force you to move to another application (after the support runs out of course)? So while gaining market share, the company is upsetting the people they gain. They are also losing the PR battle.

Now that Craig Conway is gone, this deal will probably go throw and Ellison will win his battle. Conway has been on a one-man mission to stop the acquisition and it cost him his job and through his "half-truths" to the the public about the effect of the deal on PeopleSoft it has cost the shareholders 2 Billion Dollars.

Here are a few good links about the situation:
PeopleSoft Running Short on Options, Credibility
Oracle Clears the Conway Hurdle

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