Tech Watch | InfoWorld Staff » PeopleSoft peddles more Oracle emails

September 19, 2003 | Comments: (0)

PeopleSoft peddles more Oracle emails

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I've just got my hands on a bunch of emails thrown our way late on a Friday afternoon by PeopleSoft's PR people (geez, thanks guys, just want I wanted to do right now).

The documents were released Thursday as part of the Alameda County Court proceedings. This is the second time (Google search) we've received email from the court proceedings, so no doubt the media will pick it up again.

Given that PeopleSoft's PR people love to peddle this stuff to keep up the sympathy vote I'm only going to bite off a little chunk since it makes good reading.

1. From the "No Surprises to Anyone Dept": Oracle realized it would do damage to PeopleSoft, but the emails show that inside Oracle the takeover bid was evidently not widely discussed or debated before the offer was made.

An email from Oracle Executive Vice President Safra Catz on 6/6/2003 to execs including CFO Jeff Henley and former Chief Marketing Officer Mark Jarvis reads: "If you've seen the news you will notice that we've announced that Oracle will launch a cash tender offer for PeopleSoft [and goes on to talk about how exciting it is etc etc., then speaks about PeopleSoft execs] we don't expect their senior management team to join us. We have not spoken to them directly and this deal is considered 'hostile'."

Then in a transcript of the conference call to analysts, Jeff Henley notes: "The most immediate thing that really drove the announcement of this transaction was PeopleSoft's announcement several days before the proposal to merge with J.D. Edwards."

Now, here's something of a surprise.

2. From the "Yes, IT Analysts Really Are Massaged By Vendors Dept":

Peggy O'Neill, Oracle vice president of analyst relations writes to Charles Phillips on 6/07/2003:

"See how influencable (sic) they are when we give them a little love! We deliberately courted [an AMR analyst] because he has a "strong voice" within AMR, he is able to drown out/mute other negative opinions from his own colleagues."

Then we have a slightly more worrying email exchange between Forrester and Oracle execs about a draft report on the merger, apparently needing Oracle's approval before publication.

After telling the analysts she's concerned about the "tone and balance" of the draft report, Peggy O'Neill's correspondence reads in part:

"The drafts we've seen so far seem more occupied with beating Oracle up for its behavior than giving advice to end users. I urge you to take a second look at this."

We have not yet got an official response from Oracle or the analysts regarding the latest emails.

Posted by Mark Jones on September 19, 2003 06:43 PM

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