Oracle V. Peoplesoft Case Summary

Oracle v. PeopleSoft Case, By Hossein Rad.

There are couple of ethical issues to be discussed in the Oracle v. PeopleSoft case. However some aspects of the case may still require more enlightening to allow a firm conclusions to whether they were merely truthful business decisions without any ethical violations involved or they were unethical in nature, others are more clear in terms of violation of ethical norms and values. The nature of intentions behind Conway’s initial
At a global point of view, on one hand, the timing of the takeover announcement by oracle and the nature of the takeover being hostile raise some doubts on the intensions behind them. Is it solely to benefit the stakeholders of Oracle or can some traces of the intention of harming the competitor be found? Given the Ellison’s characteristics and the fact that he and Catz have been ready to execute such plan show the unethical nature of the action at least in regards to their responsibility to society and their stakeholders. The nature of their early speeches regarding the continued support of PeopleSoft’s software after the possible takeover, although not explicitly, put some doubts in PeopleSoft’s current and future customers.
More importantly, their 16$ first price announcement, which was less than the market price and an uncommon practice in the history of takeovers, and the timing of this hostile offer, just after PeopleSoft announced its merger with J.D. Edwards, raised suspicions that Oracle is not serious about the deal and this action is taken solely to damage PeopleSoft’s business and take them out of the competition. Even if the intentions behind this takeover are purely business-­‐related, this deal could primarily trigger many job losses on both sides especially if oracle has no intention of seriously investing in PeopleSoft’s business and its main objective is to