At its OpenWorld conference in September, Oracle’s co-president Safra Catz thought the acquisition might have been concluded as early as the end of November on the grounds that there was unlikely to be lengthy regularity issues because the US and European competition watchdogs know the market so well following their extensive reviews during the PeopleSoft acquisition. The second request makes that unrealistic because it pushes out the investigation until almost the end of November, suggesting that the deal will not be finalized until January 2006 at the earliest. In addition, arrangements have not yet been made for the shareholder vote.
Given that the much more regulatory contentious and hostile Oracle/PeopleSoft deal was approved, it is unlikely that the Siebel proposal will be refused despite the request for additional information.
