Oracle Again Extends PeopleSoft Buyout Deadline

Oracle says Aug. 27 is now the deadline for its $7.7 billion offer to buy out PeopleSoft, as it waits for a decision in the Justice Department's antitrust lawsuit that would bar such a merger.

Oracle announced Monday that it is yet again extending the expiration date of its $21 per share tender offer for all of PeopleSofts common stock to Aug. 27.

Its current offer was scheduled to expire at midnight Friday. Oracle Corp. has extended its offer every one to two months while it has been fighting a U.S. Department of Justice antitrust lawsuit that seeks to permanently bar Oracle from acquiring PeopleSoft Inc.

The offer will remain on the table until the U.S. 9th District Court renders its decision and the parties have exhausted their appeals.

Click here for details on the closing briefs that Oracle and the DOJ filed as the trial heads toward a decision.

Oracle wants to spend about $7.7 billion to acquire all of the outstanding PeopleSoft shares. PeopleSoft stock closed at $17.18 per share, up 13 cents from Fridays closing price.

PeopleSoft shareholders have tendered more than 4.6 million shares and had not withdrawn them as of close of business Monday, Oracle officials said. This compares with more than 7.9 million shares that had been tendered but not withdrawn as of the expiration of the previous offer, according to an Oracle spokeswoman.

The drop in the number of shares tendered is not a concern because most shareholders wait until the last minute before the final expiration of a purchase offer, the spokeswoman said.

Oracle says a buyout of PeopleSoft is inevitable because the company lacks an "integration layer." Click here to read more. Oracle and DOJ have presented their cases and filed closing briefs in the trial. The closing briefs will be the basis for closing arguments before U.S. 9th District Judge Vaughn Walker, scheduled for July 20. Walker will study the briefs as he considers whether the government has proved its case that an Oracle-PeopleSoft merger would be anticompetitive.

Court observers estimate that it may be mid-September before Walker renders his decision.

Check out eWEEK.coms Enterprise Applications Center at http://enterpriseapps.eweek.com for the latest news, reviews and analysis about productivity and business solutions.

Be sure to add our eWEEK.com enterprise applications news feed to your RSS newsreader or My Yahoo page