The company took the opportunity to rebut Oracle’s recent claims that PeopleSoft’s management and board are trying to entrench themselves, at the shareholder’s expense, by making it extraordinarily difficult for an acquisition to take place.

PeopleSoft has delivered outstanding financial results, the letter reads. These results have been achieved despite nearly three quarters of what we believe is Oracle’s attempt to disrupt our business and damage your investment in PeopleSoft.

Oracle is offering $26 per share for PeopleSoft, a 20% premium on the stock’s asking price at yesterday’s market close. Oracle, which has previously upped its price from $16 to $19.50, says that is its final offer.

PeopleSoft says this price undervalues the stock, which the company says is trading at the low end of its historical performance and at a lesser price-earnings multiple than its peers. Other recent acquisitions, the firm said, were at a greater premium.

The company urged its shareholders to reject Oracle’s blue proxy card, which asks for their signatures on motions to increase PeopleSoft’s board of directors to nine members and to vote in a controlling slate of five Oracle nominees.

PeopleSoft claims these men are hired guns, nominated merely to do Oracle’s bidding on the board, to remove poison pill anti-takeover defenses for example, without regard for the interests of shareholders.

The PeopleSoft letter reads: When Oracle’s paid nominees all agreed to be nominated, Oracle was only offering $19.50 per share… Would Oracle’s nominees have dismantled PeopleSoft’s defenses and allowed the Company to be acquired at $19.50 per share?

The company also defended its Customer Assurance Program, an unprecedented sales maneuver that would force any PeopleSoft acquirer to pay back multiples of license fees if it stopped providing the level of product support PeopleSoft has offered.

PeopleSoft characterizes the program as a necessary way to give customers peace of mind during Oracle’s bidding. The CAP, PeopleSoft said, was instrumental in selling 1,600 licenses in the second half of last year.

PeopleSoft’s shareholder meeting is scheduled for March 25. Oracle’s $26 offer closes on March 12. The US Department of Justice is expected to indicate whether it will try to stop the deal on antitrust grounds before March 2.

This article is based on material originally published by ComputerWire