Ellison: Don't believe PeopleSoft 'lies'

Larry Ellison has said PeopleSoft customers should not believe the "lies" that are being spread by PeopleSoft executives, which claim Oracle will force them to migrate to Oracle's E-business suite products, should the hostile bid be successful.

"PeopleSoft executives are travelling around telling customers that we will 'kill' PeopleSoft's products and force them to move to Oracle's applications," said Oracle chief executive Larry Ellison in a statement released on Friday. "These are lies and scare tactics."

The statement was released on the same day that Oracle's improved bid of $6.3bn (£3.8bn) -- up from $5.1bn -- was rejected by PeopleSoft's board of directors, who say the figure is not enough.

Ellison, who will be making a keynote speech at the Oracle World AppsWorld conference in London on Tuesday, was keen to make a public commitment to PeopleSoft customers, and promised not to shut down support for PeopleSoft's products for at least 10 years. However, the statement did not deny that, if the acquisition is successful, PeopleSoft products will not be sold to new customers.

For those customers who want to migrate to Oracle, Ellison offered a "free module-for-module upgrade".

As a reference, the chief executive cited customers from the company's RDB Database acquisition from Digital. "Nearly nine years later, we are still providing support to thousands of RDB customers running mission-critical applications," he said.

PeopleSoft was outraged by Oracle's hostile bid because it came just a few days after PeopleSoft made a $1.7bn merger offer for J.D. Edwards, which would create the second-largest business-software company behind SAP.

PeopleSoft initiated the formal exchange offer for J.D. Edwards last week as both companies are keen to conclude their business as swiftly as possible.

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