U.S. Attempts to Block Oracle Bid for PeopleSoft 275
AliasF97 writes "Thought you all might be interested in this story about the U.S. government attempting to block Oracle's bid for PeopleSoft via a civil anti-trust lawsuit. Seems to me that the courts are going to have their work cut out for them on this one. Also, the photo of Ellison is kind of comical. If you were to throw a black cape and a tall hat on him, he could be a circus magician."
Holes in there argument (Score:5, Interesting)
So they would hurt large businesses... right and I am buying that microsoft not offering patches [slashdot.org] helps businesses.
Odd. (Score:5, Interesting)
Maybe Larry doesn't contribute enough towards ... uh .. certain funding. Then again, maybe PeopleSoft has connections.
After the spying on the UN scandals in the news this morning my head is swimming.
Re:Oracle still gets the benefits (Score:5, Interesting)
Peoplesoft has a golden clause in their company constitution that states along the lines of:
"If a hostile takeover is done, support must be granted for all customers within the last X years or a full refund of the receipt price will be granted"
Got that tidbit from my advisor who worked with Peoplesoft at NAU university with a beta development team.
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Re:Oracle still gets the benefits (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:money != success (Score:5, Interesting)
Don't bash him though, in my opinion the guys a great lot of fun - apparently he has been known to fly his Russian built fighter over Gate's house to piss him off.
So he has a big ego too.
As for his credentials and people slagging Ellison for the thinPC/thinClient/netPC idea, it really wasn't a bad idea, but was put out of the water by the dramatically falling price of normal PC's. On other matters he's been right on the ball - convergence in enterprise apps for example in the 11i suite - it's going to make increasing inroads into systems integrators territory such as IBM if it continues along its current path of success.
Plus he's best mates with Steve, between them you can bet this dynamic duo get up to a lot of fun (Google for the trick they played on a technician at Pixar - offering him the CEO job at Apple).
Re:Shoot my dog will you... (Score:5, Interesting)
If Oracle intended this whole deal as FUD to encourage people not to buy PeopleSoft, they couldn't have done a better job.
One of the main things people look for when they buy ERP software is longevity in the software package, and knowledge that the software will flourish in the future. This deal casts a tremendous doubt on PeopleSoft in that regard. So just the talk of this alone helps Oracle tremendously in their competition with PeopleSoft.
Re:Odd. (Score:3, Interesting)
The Justice Dept is too literal in their readings sometimes. They nixed the DirecTV/Dish Network merger because there are only 2 companies in the field, somehow not realizing that a merged satellite company would still have to compete against Cable.
Re:Proof (Score:2, Interesting)
Or else you're going to do what?
Re:mod parent up (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:mod parent up (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Oracle still gets the benefits (Score:5, Interesting)
Since Oracle has already stated that their only purpose in buying PeopleSoft is to kill the product (along with the JD Edwards software that PeopleSoft has just acquired), this is what's known as a "poison pill." Oracle would either have to do full support and updates (negating the whole point of the acquisition), or face massive lawsuits/fines by contract.
this also has the effect of de-FUDing the issue for customers who may be leery of buying new PeopleSoft/JDE product if there's a death sentence on it. pretty much a brilliant move.
Given that the ERP software market would go from around 4 players down to two (oracle vs sap) if this goes down, the deal has drawn antitrust flak.
Who cares who owns PeopleSoft (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Fuck Antitrust Laws! (Score:2, Interesting)
One thing I have to argue, here. Most government programs really are failures. Social Security, for example, is a total disaster (I don't even include it in my retirement plans). The patent office is a joke. John Ashcroft is a joke. Many defense projects are simply to funnel money to favored districts. The war on drugs is the worst thing since Prohibition. So-called free trade is not equitable. The IRS is the most politically abused organization on the planet. Subsidies and minimum wages only screw up inflation and allow people to live in denial. Schools are underfunded. Roads go unrepaird. The postal service is sort of a diamond in the rough, comparatively.
Corporations aren't people. They shouldn't get the same rights.
Agreed, however if corporate welfare ends, all the other political warm and fuzzy welfare programs should end, too. There is no justice in a world of stealing from one person to give it to another.
Re:Shoot my dog will you... (Score:2, Interesting)
I hadn't considered that they still might have something to gain by scaring ERP customers way until your post, though.
They already have (Score:1, Interesting)
THey already have. Our oracle salesman said 6 months ago they would be going after BEA when the peoplesoft stuff is done.
Peoplesoft @ Northwestern U (Score:3, Interesting)
My university [northwestern.edu] uses Peoplesoft as a vendor; we use them for class scheduling and managing class documents and communication. But they output some of the shoddiest HTML I've seen in a long time. It's a strange mix of HTML and CSS, and obviously hasn't been tested except on one browser. It's been published [dailynorthwestern.com] in our school's most-distributed newspaper: Use IE to avoid problems.
Our school's course management system is one of the more infuriating sites around. For instance, hitting enter in a form doesn't submit the form. Rather, it reloads the page. And blanks all of your entries. And you can't stop the reload.
I have a serious problem with Peoplesoft's products.
</rant>
I don't know or understand all of the stakes involved in the acquisition or lawsuit, but I have this to say: I can only hope that Peoplesoft cleans up its act (read: HTML output). I don't like having to use other people's computers when Firefox doesn't know how to deal the poor output.
Because Oracle's products don't suck. (Score:5, Interesting)
The bigger issue though, is that what Oracle does doesn't really affect us personally in any way. I mean, how many of us are running $10,000+ ERP software on are home desktops. If we use that stuff at all, it's only for work and if it is somewhat annoying, who cares?
Microsoft's largess actually affects our lives, some of us run Windows, or have seen OSs, software and companies we like crushed by them and their mediocrity.
How many of us have a personal love of peoplesoft?
Re:Fuck Antitrust Laws! (Score:3, Interesting)
If none of the remaining 30% has above 5% (or even if they do), they can also be aquired by the monopoly. Or, the monopoly may choose to price the product/service below the cost and wait for the competition to go under. Or whatever.
Think about it as, say, a rocking chair. As long as it is rocked within a certain range, it is safe and will come back to the right position. But tilting it too far will flip it over. Likewise, a market for a particular service/product may lose stability when one participant becomes too big. The (inherently stupid and inefficient) government is the only force available, that can prevent the chair from falling or lift it up once it falls.
One can argue, that it is better to let some chairs fall once in a while, than to constantly impede the rocking of all chairs by the threat of government interference. I'm not sure, what I prefer, to be honest. But it is, certainly, not as simple, as the anonymous starter of this thread puts it.
Nothing to do with proof. (Score:5, Interesting)
Guess who those two contributed most money to?
Re:mod parent up (Score:3, Interesting)
Entire linux client OS mareketshare 3%
Microsoft used and still uses it's 90%+ marketshare to prevent any competiton. They did this in an illeagal way.
What makes this funny, yet sad is that the government can't have it both ways. It can't say Microsoft is ok, and call of the justice department, then say "Stop!! Oracle buying PeopleSoft would be bad for the customer!" The customers would still have WAY WAY WAY more real choices for CRM/HR software than they have for a legitimate client OS. But the more I think about it, I have to realize that it is the government and they tend to do whatever they want to. Kind of like governors in large states.... (He should be fired, and taken to jail).