PLEASANTON, Calif. – November 10, 2004 – PeopleSoft, Inc. (Nasdaq: PSFT) announced today that its Board of Directors voted unanimously to recommend that PeopleSoft stockholders reject Oracle Corporation’s (Nasdaq: ORCL) amended unsolicited offer to purchase all PeopleSoft shares for $24.00 per share. The Board recommends that PeopleSoft stockholders not tender their shares to Oracle.
The Board made its recommendation after careful consideration of the amended offer, including a thorough review with its financial and legal advisors, and acted upon the unanimous recommendation of its Transaction Committee of independent directors. In making its recommendation, the Board concluded that the offer price is inadequate and does not reflect PeopleSoft's real value. The Board received the opinions of Citigroup Global Markets Inc. and Goldman, Sachs & Co. that, as of November 10, 2004, the Oracle offer is inadequate from a financial point of view.
Dave Duffield, PeopleSoft’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, said, “The Board concluded that PeopleSoft is worth substantially more than Oracle’s latest offer. We are a vibrant, strong company with a focused, motivated management team and employee base dedicated to executing on the Company’s plan. PeopleSoft will continue to deliver shareholder value by extending our current product leadership, building new products, entering new markets and continuing to deliver the very best customer service in the industry.”
A. George “Skip” Battle, Chairman of the Transaction Committee, said, “Members of the Transaction Committee contacted Oracle this afternoon to inform them that the Board had determined that the current Oracle offer is inadequate. We reiterated that, as members of the Board have testified in Delaware, we would be willing to discuss an offer made by Oracle at an appropriate price – but $24 isn’t it. We told Oracle that its price must reflect both PeopleSoft's intrinsic value and the fact that PeopleSoft is materially more valuable to Oracle now than it was when Oracle made its inadequate $26 per share offer. Oracle indicated they understood our position and appreciated the call.”
Mr. Battle continued, “We absolutely believe that PeopleSoft is worth far more today than at any point since this process began. Since the beginning of the year, the Company has: generated $422 million in license revenue, creating additional maintenance revenue and future up-sell and cross-sell opportunities; added 418 new license customers; increased our total deferred maintenance by approximately 9%; and generated $248 million in incremental cash ($0.67 per share). Our customer base and associated maintenance revenue stream are the exact reasons that Oracle gives for wanting to acquire PeopleSoft. In addition, we believe it’s clear that Oracle wants to acquire PeopleSoft to rescue its own declining applications business.”
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Over PeopleSoft
PeopleSoft (NASDAQ: PSFT) is wereldwijd de één na grootste aanbieder van enterprise applicatiesoftware met 12.100 klanten in meer dan 25 sectoren en 150 landen. Voor meer informatie, kijk op www.peoplesoft.nl
Voor meer informatie:
PeopleSoft Benelux BV
Rob Cools
Tel.: 020 462 5400
rob_cools(at)peoplesoft.com
Whizpr
Marieke Adama
Tel.: 0317 410 483
peoplesoft(at)whizpr.nl