Power to PeopleSoft

J.D. Edwards has been in deep financial straits and lately hasn't had much to say, at least externally. Internally, execs must have been having interesting discussions--or at least we gather that from the announcement that PeopleSoft is acquiring the OneWorld developer. For PeopleSoft, this is great news as J.D. Edwards has long had a foothold in sectors PeopleSoft was unable to break into.

Earlier this year PeopleSoft said it would revamp its software in a bid to gain market share in supply-side management, going after market-leading SAP. What makes this acquisition interesting is that most supply-chain software providers, including SAP, saw sales declines. The exception was J.D. Edwards. PeopleSoft based its supply-chain solution on technology it acquired in 1996 from RedPepper and didn't announce its own solution until earlier this year.

Although it's unlikely that J.D. Edwards customers will be forced to move to PeopleSoft in the near future, this deal does position PeopleSoft as a rival to leader SAP in supply-chain software. But we still expect to see a merging of technology, better integration between the two products and enhanced platform support from PeopleSoft as a result of the acquisition.

If Oracle manages to pull off its bid to purchase PeopleSoft, PeopleSoft programmers may find themselves in need of new jobs and organizations that have implemented a PeopleSoft system of any kind will likely be disheartened to discover they've got to go through the pain of implementation all over again.

Instead of pulling a Microsoft "partner and assimilate" to rid the market of competitors, Oracle appears to be planning an "acquire and hide-the-stuff-on-a-shelf" to clean up the competitive landscape. PeopleSoft rejected (harshly) Oracle's bid and cites Oracle's plans to disruptcustomers by forcing a migration to Oracle's own offerings in its recent request for an injunction to stop the "hostile takeover."Meanwhile, little brother J.D. Edwards has filed its own suit against Oracle--for exactly the proposed purchase price of the company by PeopleSoft--claiming that Oracle's move on PeopleSoft damaged its deal with the company and that Oracle should now pay. This little tantrum is unlikely to change Oracle's mind about purchasing PeopleSoft, since the company low-balled its offer for PeopleSoft in the first place.

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