PeopleSoft presses Edwards bid

Disregarding a renewed takeover effort from Oracle Corp., enterprise software developer PeopleSoft Inc. on June 19 commenced an exchange offer for all of the outstanding shares of common stock of J.D. Edwards & Co.

PeopleSoft is offering shareholders their choice of PeopleSoft stock or cash equal to $7.05 plus the value of 0.43 of a PeopleSoft share for each Edwards share. The value of the deal, based on PeopleSoft's June 13 closing cost, would be $1.75 billion.

The move marks one more turn in the ongoing struggle between competitors PeopleSoft and Oracle. PeopleSoft announced its intent to acquire J.D. Edwards, a move that would give it a strong presence in large and mid-size organizations, on June 2.

By June 6, Oracle announced a $16 per share bid for PeopleSoft shares, in an effort to take over the company. Analysts noted that by just making the offer, Oracle injected doubt into the minds of the company's customers. Oracle stated in its offer that it would cease selling PeopleSoft products.

PeopleSoft's board voted to recommend shareholders reject the bid, but earlier this week Oracle upped it to $19.50 a share, or a total of about $6.3 billion.

PeopleSoft's offer to Edwards shareholders expires July 17.