The company said it has renewed the program, which offers licensees a refund of two to five times their investment if PeopleSoft is bought and products subsequently go under-supported, for a second time, until December 31.
But PeopleSoft said that it has changed the offer to more closely resemble the terms of the original Customer Assurance Program (CAP) used in the second quarter, following criticisms made in lawsuits filed last week by disgruntled shareholders and Oracle.
The company has removed provisions that Oracle said would be impossible to abide by, even by a well-intentioned acquirer. Oracle has challenged the new CAP in court.
The latest contract terms, revealed in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, cut the provision that would trigger the refund if an acquirer reduced the amount of money spent per year on development and support.
Oracle had complained that this could leave an acquirer with a substantial rebate liability (about $807 million at the last count) due to normal business practices affected by factors such as the economy and the competitive landscape.
The latest revision of the CAP also removes product delays and reduction of interoperability with third-party products as refund triggers, both of which Oracle had claimed could happen even after a friendly takeover.
The changes were revealed the same day as a research note from financial analysts JMP Securities questioned whether the provisions of the third-quarter version of the CAP were good for investors, as PeopleSoft asserts.
JMP believes the triggers have become so broad that it might be difficult for an acquiring company to avoid triggering the cash payments.
They added that $807 million of CAP liability could reduce the amount any possible acquirer would be willing to pay, adding that they estimate the running total of liability to be up to $1.35 billion by the end of the year.
This article was based on material originally published by ComputerWire.
