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By Dawn Kawamoto, 5 January 2005 08:45

NEWS

Oracle has replaced two top executive positions which oversee its applications and customer support efforts, as the software company nears the finish line in its $10.3bn merger with former rival PeopleSoft.

Sources close to Oracle said on Tuesday that the company last week replaced Ron Wohl, its longtime executive vice president for applications development, with John Wookey, an Oracle senior vice president who previously oversaw its finance software and customer relationship management applications.

In addition, Michael Rocha, a 15-year Oracle employee and executive vice president of global support services, has been replaced by Juergen Rottler, who was hired in September to oversee Oracle's on-demand business unit.

Oracle declined to comment on Wohl and Rocha and on whether more changes are in the works in its executive vice president ranks.

Jim Shepherd, an analyst at AMR Research, said Oracle is expected to announce in the next two weeks the organisational changes it has made to PeopleSoft.

Shepherd said he would not be surprised to see Oracle appoint an executive vice president to handle applications from both companies as a separate business. The unit might include software development and marketing and sales, he suggested.

"Currently there is no one with top-to-bottom responsibility for the applications business, which will become a larger part of Oracle's business after the merger," Shepherd said.

Wohl, who took care of Oracle's applications development for roughly a decade, remains with the company, though it is not yet known what role he will play after the merger, sources said.

Rocha is no longer with Oracle, those sources added. As head of Oracle's global support services, he was responsible for the company's on-demand business unit before Rottler's arrival. Rottler will now be responsible for both applications support and on-demand services.

Dawn Kawamoto writes for CNET News.com.