Oracle intends to finish developing PeopleSoft 9.0 and then build successor products to both that version of PeopleSoft’s software, and the current generation of Oracle’s products.
Then we are going to take the combined resources of Oracle and PeopleSoft enterprise teams and build a functionally merged product, so when PeopleSoft and Oracle people upgrade it will be an easy and graceful upgrade. They will get a functionally richer, easier to use product, Ellison said.
Speaking during his Oracle OpenWorld keynote speech, Ellison promised: We are going to over support the PeopleSoft customers and invest heavily, to make sure we do a good job supporting PeopleSoft.
Twenty four hours before this speech, Oracle president Charles Phillips had promised the company would continue separate Oracle and PeopleSoft product lines. Phillips also said a greater number of resources would be deployed to help support the PeopleSoft line.
For both Phillips and Ellison, the matter of Oracle’s acquisition when brought up at the company’s conference, in San Francisco, California, is a done deal. Oracle has been speaking not of ‘if but when the deal goes though.
Bullishness aside, though, the deal is vital to take on enterprise resource planning (ERP) giant SAP AG, and Oracle must prevent a drain of disgruntled PeopleSoft customers and developers to SAP and others.
Ellison said: We are going to give SAP a good run for their money in this business. To do that, we need more customers and developers.
Asked whether Oracle would change its bid price for PeopleSoft, Ellison responded: I never knew a seller who never wanted more and a buyer who never wanted to pay less. That’s just the nature of business.
