25 July 2003 Oracle has reaffirmed its determination to acquire enterprise resource planning software rival PeopleSoft, even though the latter has now completed its friendly acquisition of midrange ERP specialist JD Edwards, by upping its bid for the company by another $1.2 billion to $7.5 billion.

When Oracle announced its hostile bid for PeopleSoft in early June, the company put a clause in the offer that allowed it to back out of the deal if the JD Edwards purchase went through. However, Oracle has now revised its bid by formally extending it to include JD Edwards.

The new price tag doesn’t mean that PeopleSoft shareholders are now being offered more money per share by Oracle. It has been driven by the fact that PeopleSoft is issuing an additional 53 million shares as part of its $1.8 billion acquisition of JD Edwards.

The price is also still well within Oracle’s capabilities. The company currently has some $6.5 billion in cash and a $5 billion credit line.

PeopleSoft CEO Craig Conway has yet to comment on the revised offer, although he is unlikely to be any more welcoming than before. Oracle also still faces the threat of an antitrust review, both in the US and Europe.

Oracle’s bid for PeopleSoft is currently scheduled to expire on 15 August, but Oracle has already said that it will probably extend that deadline.