Oracle Ties Bid to Deadline

An attorney for Oracle Corp. said the company would abandon its legal challenge to PeopleSoft Inc.’s anti-takeover protections if shareholders failed to tender a majority of their shares by a Nov. 19 deadline.

In a letter dated Friday to the Delaware court that heard two weeks of evidence in October on PeopleSoft’s corporate defenses, Michael Carroll said Oracle would drop its effort to get a judge to invalidate both a standard “poison pill” and a special customer program if the tender offer expired without having attracted at least 50% of PeopleSoft’s shares.

The idea that Oracle would walk away before getting a ruling in the legal contest is consistent with the messages the company has been sending since it raised its offer for PeopleSoft to $24 a share from $21 on Nov. 1.

Shares of Pleasanton, Calif.-based PeopleSoft closed at $23.15, down 2 cents, on Nasdaq on Monday. Redwood City, Calif.-based Oracle’s shares fell 6 cents to $13.11, also on Nasdaq.

Carroll’s letter Friday asked Judge Leo Strine Jr. to postpone a scheduled Nov. 12 hearing on remaining issues in the Delaware case until after the fate of the tender offer is known.