Chairman and CEO Dave Duffield resigned on December 21. Following the offer deadline four PeopleSoft directors resigned from the board, to be replaced by Oracle’s choice of replacements, to give Oracle majority board representation.
PeopleSoft co-president and CFO Kevin Parker, co-president Phil Wilmington, executive vice president and chief marketing officer Nanci Caldwell, and senior vice president, general counsel and secretary James Shaughnessy were replaced by Oracle’s co-presidents Safra Catz and Charles Phillips.
Harry You took over as the financial chief, and Daniel Cooperman takes on the role of senior vice president, general counsel and secretary. Two remaining PeopleSoft directors will stay on the board until the takeover is completed.
Although Oracle has secured 75% of the outstanding PeopleSoft stock, it cannot finalize the acquisition until it has control of at least 90%. It has set a further deadline of to let shareholders tender their remaining stock. This is a formality, and Oracle said it expects to complete the merger soon.
The company will soon reveal its plans for PeopleSoft’s 12,000 employees. Its stance has changed since the early days of its bid, when it threatened to slash the workforce by half, and Oracle now says the combined entity will retain the best people, whether from Oracle or PeopleSoft.
Oracle will certainly need to keep large numbers of PeopleSoft’s R&D and support staff, given its product development promises, support commitments and its need to keep licenses and PeopleSoft’s $1 billion annual maintenance revenues rolling in. A large portion of the sales force could also survive in the new meritocracy based on their performance over the difficult last 18 months or more.
Oracle plans to formally launch the combined PeopleSoft/Oracle entity on January 18, when it will start to reveal some of its further integration plans.
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