It"s an early Christmas for Oracle Corp.—and PeopleSoft Inc. shareholders. The two companies announced early Monday morning a definitive merger agreement whereby Oracle will acquire PeopleSoft for $26.50 per share, or $10.3 billion. The final buying price is $2.50 per share, or about $1.2 billion over Oracle"s "best and final offer" from last month.
Oracle"s latest offer expires December 28, at midnight. Oracle had set a previous tender offer deadline of Nov. 19 for at least 50 percent of PeopleSoft shareholders to tender their shares at $24 per share. By midnight on the 19th, 61 percent of PeopleSoft"s shareholders had tendered their shares. Today"s agreement ends a 19-month-long bitter battle for PeopleSoft to remain independent. During that time Oracle submitted nearly a half dozen tender offers; each was succinctly and unanimously declined by PeopleSoft"s board of directors.