Renee Boucher Ferguson

EC Extends Review of Oracle Takeover Bid

The European Commission announced Monday it will continue the probe into Oracle Corp.s proposed $7.3 billion takeover of PeopleSoft Inc. The EC, a division of the European Union, began its investigation earlier this fall and has now determined there is enough interest to warrant a deeper look. The second phase of the investigation will last […]

Procuri Acquires SupplierInsight

Strategic sourcing software developer Procuri Inc. announced Monday the acquisition of SupplierInsight Inc. for an undisclosed sum. The addition of SupplierInsight is part of Procuris product roadmap to round out its development efforts in supplier relationship management—SupplierInsights area of expertise. With the acquisition, Procuri is able to include critical components to its suite: the ability […]

SAP, Sybase Team Up on SMBs

Making further inroads into the small and midsize business sector, SAP AG and Sybase Inc announced a partnership Monday that will combine SAPs applications offering with Sybases relational database system. As part of the agreement, SAP, of Walldorf, Germany, will integrate its Business One software with Sybases ASE (Adaptive Server Enterprise) relational database management system. […]

Epicor Looks to Scala to Expand ERP Presence

Filling a gap in the midmarket enterprise resource planning software development market, Epicor Software Corp. announced Friday a merger with European-based Scala Business Solutions. Epicor, of Irvine, Calif. expects to pay about $87 million for the Amsterdam, Netherlands, company—a deal that amounts to $41.7 million in cash plus 4.1 million shares of Epicors common stock, […]

Microsoft Updates SMB Suites and Banking Services

Making further strides with its technology aimed at small and midsized businesses, Microsoft Corps Business Solutions Division announced today a number of upgrades to its Great Plains, Solomon, Navision and Axapta ERP (enterprise resource planning) suites. At the same time, MBS announced a partnership with Bank One Corp. to provide a combined product, dubbed Integrated […]

Oracle Reiterates its PeopleSoft Buy Stance

Quashing online rumors, Oracle Corp said Tuesday the company has no intention of stepping back from its $7.3 billion hostile takeover bid for PeopleSoft Inc. Despite an amended filing on Monday that requested the Delaware Chancery Court to provide injunctive relief against PeopleSofts Customer Assurance Program—which could be prohibitively costly to Oracle should it acquire […]

PeopleSoft Gives Peek at SCM 8.8

At its Distributors and Manufacturers Users Group Conference in Austin, Texas, this week, PeopleSoft Inc. announced the next iteration of its Supply Chain Management suite. SCM 8.8 includes enhancements PeopleSoft developed with input from DMUG, such as functionality to help manufacturers increase their agility in manufacturing goods and better track customers orders. For real-time analytics […]

Corticon Speeds Business Rules Engine

An upgrade to Corticon Technologies Inc.s business rules engine software will run about 10 times faster than the current version. That feature of Decision Management Platform Version 2.8 will help organizations such as the state of Washingtons Department of Health Services process vast amounts of data for business process automation, Corticon officials said. Bonnie Moonchild, […]

Comergent Gears Demand Chain Tool Update at Ordering

Comergent Technologies Inc. is enhancing its demand chain management software with a handful of new and upgraded features that span the order transaction life cycle. A new C3 Proposals tool in Comergent E-Business System Version 6.4, which will be rolled out this week and available in January, is geared toward the presales stage of an […]

SAP Streamlines Portal Administration

SAP AG has added enhanced administration capabilities, upgraded collaboration functions and broader language support to its portal software. SAP Enterprise Portal 6.0, which SAP began shipping last week, enables corporate users to access information from internal applications and external sources. Portal administration has been simplified in Version 6.0, a part of SAPs NetWeaver integration stack, […]