PeopleSoft Pushes to Close J.D. Edwards Deal
Despite Oracle’s sweetened offer to acquire PeopleSoft , the enterprise application vendor is pushing to close its $1.75 billion merger plan with fellow application company J.D. Edwards .The company on Thursday said it launched an exchange offering in order to close the deal, which offers J.D. Edwards stockholders cash or PeopleSoft common stock.
The latest development move comes one day after database giant Oracle raised its unsolicited bid for PeopleSoft from $5.1 billion to $6.3 billion, and said it intended to file a lawsuit, charging that PeopleSoft is interfering with its own takeover bid.As Oracle seeks to woo PeopleSoft’s shareholders by proposing $19.50 per share instead of the prior $16 offer, PeopleSoft kept pushing ahead with its merger plans with J.D. Edwards Thursday, announcing the launch of an exchange of shares to close the merger.
Based on the $16.92 closing price of PeopleSoft’s shares on June 13 before the deal was announced, the deal works out to about $14.33 per share, which values the deal at about $1.75 billion (based on 122.4 million J.D. Edwards shares outstanding).
The news also comes as PeopleSoft’s chief executive, Craig Conway, delivers the keynote address during the CeBit America trade show in New York.
PeopleSoft said J.D. Edwards stockholders can elect to receive either all cash or all stock for their J.D. Edwards shares, subject to proration.
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