PeopleSoft Pushes to Close J.D. Edwards Deal

Despite Oracle’s sweetened offer to acquire PeopleSoft , the enterprise application vendor is pushing to close its
$1.75 billion merger plan with fellow application company J.D. Edwards
.

The company on Thursday said it launched an exchange offering in order to
close the deal, which offers J.D. Edwards stockholders cash or PeopleSoft
common stock.

The latest development move comes one day after database giant Oracle
raised its
unsolicited bid for PeopleSoft from $5.1 billion to $6.3 billion, and
said it intended to file a lawsuit, charging that PeopleSoft is interfering
with its own takeover bid.

As Oracle seeks to woo PeopleSoft’s shareholders by proposing $19.50 per
share instead of the prior $16 offer, PeopleSoft kept pushing ahead with its
merger plans with J.D. Edwards Thursday, announcing the launch of an
exchange of shares to close the merger.

Based on the $16.92 closing price of PeopleSoft’s shares on June 13
before the deal was announced, the deal works out to about $14.33 per share,
which values the deal at about $1.75 billion (based on 122.4 million J.D.
Edwards shares outstanding).

The news also comes as PeopleSoft’s chief executive, Craig Conway,
delivers the keynote address during the CeBit America trade show in New
York.

PeopleSoft said J.D. Edwards stockholders can elect to receive either all
cash or all stock for their J.D. Edwards shares, subject to proration.