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By silicon.com, 6 June 2003 14:38

COMMENT When, on Monday, silicon.com wrote of the PeopleSoft-JD Edwards deal "Expect more of it" we never thought it likely we'd be getting "more of it" quite so soon. Today's bolt out of the blue (we're getting used to them this week) sees Oracle make a $5.1bn bid for PeopleSoft. It clearly sees parts of that business as attractive, though not JD Edwards. They say timing is everything. In a conference call Oracle executives said PeopleSoft CEO Craig Conway actually approached them about a deal a year ago. Looks like it took PeopleSoft getting ambitious to prompt an Oracle bid. And Ellison and co are clearly serious. They're offering cash and a promise of completion some time in July. At the time of writing PeopleSoft hasn't issued a reply. By any standards it's had a busy beginning and end to the working week. We predict some overtime this weekend. Whatever the outcome of the nascent Oracle-PeopleSoft-JD Edwards soap opera, one thing is for sure. In the week that also saw ERP outfit Baan find a new home again, consolidation is very much on the agenda for some of the biggest names in IT software. Of course the other big news was also characterised by survival instincts - or at least a recognition that there's strength in numbers. Palm looks set to buy Handspring, its kind of bastard offspring and a company that lost its way despite some great designs and ideas. Most of the markets we see stagnating will see this kind of shake out. What next? You can probably predict the headlines as well as us. Meanwhile 3G operator '3' - a division of telecoms outfit Hutchison Whampoa that has roundly been written off by financial analysts and many others - has decided to compete on the price of voice packages. This is just what analyst John Strand advised against earlier this week, saying users will never understand and use advanced non-voice services such as data and video if 3 concentrates on selling voice. However, Ovum analyst John Delaney today countered that if 3 doesn't gain a foothold somehow - and competing on price for voice may just be that foothold - it won't generate revenue and so have a future at all. Expect to see all kinds of ducking and diving as the shake out continues.