Oracle-PeopleSoft battle is good for SAP, exec says
127099
CANNES, FRANCEÂ -- Regardless of whether Oracle Corp. succeeds in its hostile takeover bid for PeopleSoft Inc., market leader SAP AG will be the one to reap the benefits, an executive for the German company said on Sunday.ADVERTISEMENTSBC Case Study: Crate & BarrelWhat sold them on improving their network? A system that could cut management costs from the get-go. Find out more.
670404
Users hope SAP AG's admission that it inappropriately downloaded proprietary technical data from Oracle databases won't hurt the vendor in the long run.
112493
NEW YORK - Thursday's pro-Oracle Corp. decision on the U.S. Department of Justice's attempt to block Oracle's proposed takeover of PeopleSoft Inc. could have ramifications for the broader software market: Most software stocks rose in Friday trading as investors and analysts viewed the DOJ's loss as a signal for Oracle and other software companies to go shopping for acquisitions.
503616
NEW YORK - Oracle Chief Executive Larry Ellison and his lieutenants, armed with impressive earnings forecasts, Wednesday made a confident sales pitch to Wall Street on their blockbuster acquisition of PeopleSoft.
746654
NEW YORK: PeopleSoft Inc, fresh from firing its chief executive amid a hostile takeover bid from Oracle Corp, said yesterday that quarterly revenue would exceed Wall Street&#39;s expectations helped by an increase in customers making larger orders for its
207332
The Motley Fool - It appears that Larry Ellison took to the stage last week with more drama in mind than he had the right to perform. Oracle (Nasdaq: ORCL - News) really did produce a strong quarter, but the CEO may have been speaking with feet of clay when he came out strongly in regard to rival enterprise-software developer SAP (NYSE: S News). An SAP representative took the time to give me his company's side of the story, to which I've added my own Foolish touch.
155615
PeopleSoft Inc. will push ahead with a new marketing alliance and other initiatives in the face of a court ruling that raises the chance that Oracle Corp.'s &#36;7.7-billion hostile takeover bid could succeed, PeopleSoft's chief executive said on Tuesday.
756357
PeopleSoft Inc. will push ahead with a new marketing alliance with IBM and other initiatives despite a recent court ruling that bolstered Oracle Corp.
676022
(InfoWorld) - Competition in the software world is fiercer than ever and Safra Catz, the Israel-born and usually soft-spoken president and chief financial officer of Oracle Corp., uncharacteristically savaged rivals at the annual Oracle Israel technological conference Monday. "A third of the features that Microsoft promised would be in its new database aren't there," Catz mocked, adding that Microsoft Corp. also presented its product two years behind schedule. Perhaps to drive her point home, she then said it again. Catz, who left Israel at age six, also locked horns, metaphorically speaking, with SAP AG and IBM Corp. on behalf of Oracle, which is the world's number two software maker after that software company from Redmond. She took advantage of a private visit to Israel to attend the Oracle Israel meet at Airport City, south of Tel Aviv. And the day before her company publishes its fourth-quarter and full-year 2006 financial results, she tore off her kid gloves and had at S- the "German ERP company" and Microsoft. Oracle has a beef with Microsoft, which has conquered significant swathes of the database and enterprise applications markets from Oracle. If there is a subtext to her message, it's that Oracle will do anything to keep the enterprise market out of Microsoft's claws. Once a client goes Microsoft, it can get the whole package from Redmond and Oracle really doesn't like when that happens. However, Oracle's case is that its features are much better -- safer, more scalable, and so forth. This includes software it has improved in the wake of acquisitions. It has invested billions in buying no fewer than 30 software companies. Just three acquisitions -- PeopleSoft Hyperion, and Siebel -- together cost almost US$6 billion. Catz also makes the case that it invests massively in R&D, as much as $2 billion a year. No small part of this money goes to helping customers with system integration. "I am visiting our clients and watching many products that we already purchased, such as Hyperion and Siebel, and I am happy to say to my customers that they don't have any integration problem any more." How's that? That's because Oracle does the worrying for them: "It is proud to undertake this problem," Catz explains, allowing them to focus on their business while it considers the knotty issues of integrating the systems of the 30 companies it bought with its own. Catz took a swipe at competitors: "SAP failed to meet the goals that it declared in its financial statements. We managed to beat expectations for 17 straight quarters while SAP missed forecasts in three out of four quarters, including the fourth and most significant quarter, which a software company cannot afford to miss," she said. She also noted that SAP is not expected to have new products for the high-end business market until 2010, while Oracle's new offerings should be ready to roll next year. What SAP is concentrating on at present is the small business sector, she says, hinting that the company has lost focus and is scrabbling for revenue. "SAP has succumbed to the curse of the winners. They lost sight of the competition," she analyzes. "We have the competition in view all the time." As for the resignation of superstar Shai Agassi from SAP, she shrugs that she can't comment. "I believe he's a very clever man and he saw great opportunity in green technologies," she said, after the young Israeli, who had been tapped to be the leader of the software giant one day, bowed out. She thinks he probably compared his potential future in alternative energy to his potential future at SAP, and figured that green is better than software for enterprises. Regarding IBM, Catz claims that Oracle passed the older company in worldwide database market share.
645957
Exec says hostile bid was made out of fear that PeopleSoft would deploy tough defensive measures. WILMINGTON, Del. (Dow Jones) - Oracle Corp.
587933
The PeopleSoft director who has been leading the defense of the software company's anti-takeover measures said Tuesday the company's board is willing to talk about a deal with rival Oracle.
329515
LONDON (CBS.MW) -- SAP has returned to double-digit growth and is continuing to beat its major rivals in worldwide and US market share, the business software leader said on Thursday.
248476
It&#39;s been a good year for Oracle (Nasdaq: ORCL) CEO Larry Ellison. In all, Oracle posted breathtaking earnings gains, beat a Justice Department lawsuit, forced the firing of a key rival, and
368300
A PeopleSoft Inc.  board member told a Delaware court on Tuesday that the software maker would consider a bid from its rival Oracle Corp.  provided the price was right and a deal closed quickly.
205011
PeopleSoft Inc. will push ahead with a marketing alliance and other initiatives in the face of a court ruling that raises the chance that Oracle Corp.'s $7.7 billion hostile takeover bid could succeed, PeopleSoft's chief executive said yesterday.
621095
(InfoWorld) - SAP AG has asked a U.S. court to order settlement talks in its legal battle with Oracle Corp., arguing that Oracle exaggerated its claims against the German software maker. Oracle said it opposed such talks and accused SAP of trying to "make this case go away." In court papers Tuesday, SAP picked several holes in Oracle's lawsuit,Â which was filed in March against SAP and its TomorrowNow Inc. subsidiary. The suit charged the companies with posing as Oracle customers and illegally downloading customer support materials from an Oracle Web site. Oracle's version of what happened is "dramatic but inaccurate," SAP argued in a joint filing submitted ahead of a case management conference scheduled for Sept. 4. It said Oracle ignored several factors in its complaint, including thatÂ TomorrowNow was entitled to access the Oracle Web site because it was doing work for Oracle customers, and that none of the material was downloaded by SAP itself. "This case, in short, is about whether TomorrowNow exceeded its customers' rights in downloading certain materials. That is not a matter of 'corporate theft on a grand scale,' as Oracle says in its complaint, but a matter of contract interpretation," SAP wrote. It asked the court to order the two sides into an "alternative dispute resolution" process, which would seek to settle the case outside the courtroom. It wants the process to begin in a few months, mediated by a magistrate judge, and for discovery -- the process of gathering evidence and interviewing witnesses -- to continue in the meantime. "As with most cases, prompt resolution of this case is in the best interests of all concerned," SAP said. Oracle was against the idea, however. It said SAP has given no evidence that it never received the documents downloaded by TomorrowNow. What's more, the downloads that Oracle has uncovered so far may be only the "tip of the iceberg." Settlement talks would be premature until Oracle has determined the extent of SAP's illegal conduct, Oracle said. SAP has "one obvious goal: to make this case go away without meaningful discovery into what it really did," the company said. The positions are laid out in documents filed ahead of a case management conference scheduled for Sept. 4. Oracle portrays the case as highly complex and requiring lengthy discovery, including depositions from dozens of customers. It is seeking a trial date in September 2009. SAP says the scope of the case should be narrower and that it is unnecessary to interview so many customers. It wants a trial date of February 2009 or earlier. The issues are likely to be discussed further at the case management conference on Sept. 4, and the court will issue an order with its decisions after that, SAP said. SAP posted a copy of the joint filing on its Web site. Â
747485
Oracle Corp. Chief Executive Officer Larry Ellison probably won enough support among PeopleSoft Inc. investors to press on with his 17-month fight to buy the business- management software company.