Administration July 12, 2006

More Pink Slips at PeopleSoft

December 31, 2004 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - The bloodbath continues at HR software maker PeopleSoft, just a day after Oracle's contentious $10.3 billion takeover was concluded.
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The Oracle Corporation fired PeopleSoft’s co-president and chief financial officer, Kevin T. Parker, and three other top executives.

According to Bloomberg News, Oracle also terminated W. Phillip Wilmington, co-president; Nanci Caldwell, chief marketing officer; and James Shaughnessy, general counsel, effective December 30, according to a regulatory filing.   Word of co-founder and current PeopleSoft chairman David Duffield’s recent resignation surfaced earlier this week (see  PeopleSoft Chairman Resigns as Oracle Continues to Collect Shares).  

Oracle, which is based in Redwood City, Calif., named its co-presidents, Charles E. Phillips Jr. and Safra A. Catz, and its chief financial officer, Harry L. You, to the PeopleSoft posts.

The 18-month hostile takeover bid by Oracle included a war of combative press releases and corporate board pronouncements as well as bitterly fought litigation.  The battle, which culminated in late October, with PeopleSoft’s capitulation at $26.50/share (see  Oracle, PeopleSoft Settle Takeover) ,  sparked three court cases, cost PeopleSoft CEO Craig Conway his job and took more than $1 billion in sales from PeopleSoft.  A sale also halts a legal battle in Delaware, where Oracle was trying to have PeopleSoft’s takeover defenses thrown out  (See  Oracle PeopleSoft Battle Set for Courtroom Return  ).

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