Ellison on PeopleSoft bid: 'Never say never'

IDG News Service - LONDON -- Oracle Corp Chairman and CEO Larry Ellison didn't rule out sweetening the company's unsolicited offer to acquire rival PeopleSoft Inc.
"Never say never," Ellison replied when asked if the company would increase its $6.3 billion offer for PeopleSoft.
While touting the future of the company's applications business at its AppsWorld conference in London, Ellison briefly addressed Oracle's bid for PeopleSoft, which could broaden its offerings in that market.
Ellison said he believed the deal would be good for customers and promised that Oracle wouldn't kill off any PeopleSoft product lines and would in fact extend support for PeopleSoft 7 and PeopleSoft 8.
He expressed frustration, however, at the PeopleSoft board's rejection of the offer, saying that the company belonged to the shareholders and not the board.
On other topics, Ellison urged companies to throw out their myriad databases today, saying that the fragmentation of customer information is the No. 1 problem facing application systems.
The comment underscored Oracle's increasing focus on its applications business.
"We are in the business of selling databases, and you all have bought too many of them," Ellison told the crowd of 8,500 attendees.
Ellison said that up until recently, technology companies have focused on automating departments rather than automating businesses, which has led to a serious fragmentation of information. "A company's most precious resource is its customer information, and we are paying a fortune not to get that information," Ellison said.
He noted that many companies' customer data is located in numerous databases that are expensive to maintain and don't offer easy access to information.
Ready access to customer data is what Oracle is trying to deliver with its E-Business Suite, Ellison said, as he marked a turn away from heavy-handed database sales to a focus on integration.
"We think we are delivering the first modern information systems that deliver information, not technology," Ellison said.
AppsWorld London runs through June 26.