PeopleSoft has completed its acquisition of rival ERP vendor JD Edwards, the company said this afternoon. The software provider said that it has purchased some 88pc of JD Edwards outstanding shares and expects to buy the remaining shares in the company by the end of August.
The acquisition follows a month of bitter acrimony between a hostile Oracle Corporation that wanted to acquire PeopleSoft for a staggering US$6bn; and the respective boards of PeopleSoft and JD Edwards who have fought a running battle to see that a merger between the two latter companies succeeds.
In a statement this afternoon, PeopleSoft president and CEO Craig Conway said: “The powerful combination of PeopleSoft and JD Edwards creates the second largest enterprise applications software company in the world. The combination expands not only our customer base, product offerings and markets, but also our talent. Our two companies share a high-performance, customer-focused culture and we look forward to welcoming our colleagues at JD Edwards to the PeopleSoft team.”
JD Edwards chairman, president and CEO Bob Dutkowsky added: “The combination of JD Edwards and PeopleSoft is the culmination of the JD Edwards strategic plan to create significant value for all of our stakeholders.
“With the resources of the combined company, we will continue to make our customers stronger and solve their most pressing business problems. We’re combining two extraordinary and highly complementary companies that together will set a new standard in serving the needs of enterprise application software customers,” Dutkowsky said.
It appears that Oracle, however, has refused to take the news lying down and has continued to fight its cause. Oracle has upped its cash tender offer to purchase all of the outstanding shares of PeopleSoft to US$19.50 per share, or approximately US$6.3bn.
By John Kennedy
