Oracle's Larry Ellison: Trying to expand

Oracle is now offering $19.50 a share for PeopleSoft, valuing the company at $6.3bn - almost 25% more than its previous $5.1bn offer.

PeopleSoft chief executive Craig Conway rejected Oracle's $5.1bn (�3.1bn) offer, claiming such a deal would be blocked by competition authorities.

In a full-page advert in newspapers on Tuesday, he accused Oracle of deliberately upsetting business momentum, calling the offer "a calculated approach to disrupt our business".

Oracle's offer is being seen by PeopleSoft as a spoiler, to stop it carrying through a takeover of its own of JD Edwards for $1.75bn, almost half of which it is prepared to pay in cash.

Oracle's "friendly" approach, meanwhile, has turned into a hostile takeover attempt and includes the promise of discontinuing all of PeopleSoft's products.

In its own advert, Oracle printed a graph of PeopleSoft's falling share price and declining revenue growth under the headline: "Look what PeopleSoft management's done for you lately."

Dirty tactics?

The firm's flamboyant leader, Larry Ellison, has appealed to PeopleSoft shareholders to demand a vote and overturn the board's veto of the deal.

"PeopleSoft is doing everything it can to prevent its shareholders from voting," Mr Ellison said in a statement.

Fund managers meanwhile are growing increasingly frustrated by the spat.

"It seems both sides are desperately in need of adult supervision," one fund manager told Reuters on the condition of anonymity.