Wednesday, December 15, 2004

Finally!! - Oracle Buys Peoplesoft

Well, I guess it’s good news if you are an Oracle Consultant or Implementor like myself. If you’re a JD Edwards or Peoplesoft Consultant or Implementor it could be interesting times.

After a long and protracted take over battle, Oracle has finally bought Peoplesoft. I remember thinking at the beginning of Oracle’s take over efforts that it was going to happen one way or the other and so it has. Fortunately, Oracle in taking over Peoplesoft has also managed to swallow up J.D. Edwards so now they only really have SAP, Microsoft and the Open Source Movement to contend with. You can check out the official press statement here. I noted with interest the following lines in the press statement: -

This merger works because we will have more customers, which increases our ability to invest more in applications development and support. We intend to enhance PeopleSoft 8 and develop a PeopleSoft 9 and enhance a JD Edwards 5 and develop a JD Edwards 6. We intend to immediately extend and improve support for existing JD Edwards and PeopleSoft customers worldwide.

I guess this offers some relief to Peoplesoft and J.D. Edwards customers in the short term but knowing how difficult it could be to integrate these products
into Oracle E-Business Suite I wouldn’t be surprised if Oracle decides to kill both of them and just retain the customers and some of the skills and infrastructure used to build, distribute, market and sell these products.

Also check out the Oracle Peoplesoft Page for more in depth information on the deal.