John Pallatto

The U.S Department of Justice and Oracle released their “conclusions of law and fact” Friday, with each stating why it should prevail in the governments antitrust lawsuit seeking to block Oracles hostile buyout of PeopleSoft. The briefs, filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, will be the basis for closing arguments before U.S. Ninth […]

SAN FRANCISCO–Oracle rested its case Thursday by presenting testimony supporting its argument that competition in the enterprise application software market is so intense that sooner or later PeopleSoft will have no choice but to accept a buyout by someone. Oracle Corp. called expert witnesses Wednesday and Thursday in the Department of Justices antitrust case who […]

SAN FRANCISCO—Oracle Corp. Co-President Charles Phillips met over lunch with Sanjay Kumar, former chairman of Computer Associates International Inc., to get his advice on how to win U.S. Department of Justice clearance for its $7.7 billion buyout bid for PeopleSoft Inc. On June 27, 2003, Phillips sent an e-mail message to Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, […]

SAN FRANCISCO—At the ongoing antitrust trial here, Oracle Corp. CEO Larry Ellison testified on Wednesday that merger discussions Oracle and PeopleSoft Inc. conducted in mid-2002 failed mainly because PeopleSoft chief executive Craig Conway insisted he would remain the sole head of the merged business applications group. Conway called Ellison in June 2002 to discuss a […]

SAN FRANCISCO–Oracle Corp. Thursday asked the court to summarily dismiss the Department of Justices lawsuit on the grounds that the government had totally failed to prove its case that Oracles bid to buy PeopleSoft Inc. would violate federal antitrust law. DOJ lead attorney Claude Scott opposed the motion and claimed the government had presented “ample […]

SAN FRANCISCO—Microsoft Corp. has no plans to build up its business solutions group into a major competitor in the enterprise applications software market now that it has abandoned any thought of acquiring SAP AG, Douglas Burgum, Microsoft senior vice president testified Wednesday. It would take too long and cost too much money to build up […]

SAN FRANCISCO—SAP is “anticipating a greater amount of competition” if its two main rivals, Oracle and PeopleSoft, are allowed to merge, a company vice president testified Wednesday. SAP AG is at the top of the North American enterprise application software (EAS) market with a 34 percent share, said Richard Knowles, SAP Americas vice president of […]

SAN FRANCISCO–The Department of Justice rested its case Tuesday with the understanding that it will call Doug Burgum, head of Microsoft Corp.s Business Solutions group as its last witness Wednesday. Oracle Corp. attorneys foreshadowed Burgums testimony Tuesday by releasing a “competitive profile” of Microsoft that claims that the Redmond, Wash., software giant is a formidable […]

Oracle Corp. attorneys cross examined PeopleSoft senior sales executive Phil Wilmington for more than four hours Thursday to try get him to back off from his position that high-end enterprise resource planning software market is limited to three main players. While Wilmington, PeopleSoft executive vice president for the Americas, staunchly held to the position that […]

Its become painfully apparent over the past two weeks of trial testimony that the Department of Justices case against Oracles attempted hostile takeover of PeopleSoft is no slam dunk. The DOJ has called witness after witness who have taken the stand to dutifully testify that there are only three viable competitors in the market for […]