Oracle wants PeopleSoft to change its ‘negative position’

NEWS Oracle chief executive Larry Ellison wants to meet with PeopleSoft in order to try and change the company’s ‘negative position’ regarding the proposed takeover Oracle, which announced a surprise bid to acquire PeopleSoft last Friday, has requested to meet with the business software maker to explain its intentions. Oracle chief executive Larry Ellison posted a letter dated 9 June to Craig Conway, chief executive of PeopleSoft, asking the company's board for an opportunity to explain the potential acquisition and the financing behind it. Oracle has offered to buy PeopleSoft for around $5.1bn (£3.1bn) but admitted that it would phase out PeopleSoft's products over time. The letter also acknowledged that PeopleSoft has taken a negative view of the deal. After Oracle's move was announced, Conway denounced it as an example of Oracle's "atrocious" behaviour. Earlier that same week, PeopleSoft extended a bid to buy J.D. Edwards, an acquisition, if completed, that would push PeopleSoft past Oracle in business applications. "Your press release, quotes attributed to you in the press, and a notice we just received with respect to your intention to commence litigation against us raise the concern that you have taken a negative position with respect to the merits and motivations behind our offer before you and the PeopleSoft board have taken the time required to consider the offer," Ellison's letter stated. "We have made a serious, fully financed, all-cash offer to your stockholders, and your fiduciary duties to those stockholders require a full and fair review done in good faith." The letter also reiterated Oracle's request that PeopleSoft eliminate its "poison pill" -- a provision that calls for more shares to be unleashed, thereby making it more expensive for an unwanted suitor to acquire the company. The offer will expire 7 July. PeopleSoft spokeswoman Dee Anna McPherson declined to comment on management's reaction to Ellison's letter, adding that "our board of directors will review the tender offer and determine all the appropriate actions moving forward." News.com's Charles Cooper contributed to this report.