Stacy Cowley

At the end of a strong quarter six months ago, PeopleSoft Inc. chief executive officer Craig Conway told analysts that Oracle Corp.'s bid for his company was effectively dead and having no impact on sales. Thursday, at the end of a weaker quarter, Conway revised his message and blamed Oracle's lingering takeover campaign for lost and delayed sales.

Computer Associates International Inc. chairman and chief executive officer Sanjay Kumar will vacate those positions, the company said Wednesday. Kumar will remain with CA in the newly created role of chief software architect. Board member Lewis Ranieri has been elected chairman. CA will soon name an interim CEO, the company said.

Siebel Systems Inc. said Tuesday it has acquired Dublin-based banking software developer Eontec Ltd. to add transactional capabilities to its banking CRM (customer relationship management) and analytics offerings. Siebel paid US$70 million cash for the company, and will pay up to US$60 million more in cash throughout 2005 if revenue and customer-satisfaction targets are met, according to executives.

Following a wave of indictments this month that netted guilty pleas to securities fraud and other charges from several former finance executives at Computer Associates International Inc. (CA), speculation is turning to the fate of the company's chief executive officer (CEO).

The U.S. Department of Justice's lawsuit to block Oracle Corp.'s proposed takeover of PeopleSoft Inc. is predicated on the argument that only three vendors meet the needs of customers seeking enterprise-strength ERP (enterprise resource planning) systems: Oracle, PeopleSoft and SAP AG. But for its own ERP purchase, the DOJ looked beyond the Big Three. The agency said Tuesday it has selected American Management Systems (AMS) Inc.'s Momentum software to run its financial management system, in a deal worth up to US$24 million.

IBM Corp. Chairman and CEO Sam Palmisano used one of his rare conference keynote appearances recently to exhort the company's business partners to adopt IBM's on-demand vision of standards-based IT flexibility.

EMC Corp.'s content management software division, Documentum Inc., has purchased Xerox Corp.'s askOnce technology for integrating content from disparate data sources. Terms of the deal, announced Tuesday, were not disclosed.

In its investigation of Oracle Corp.'s proposed takeover of PeopleSoft Inc., the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) uncovered evidence that Oracle discounts its applications when competing for sales against SAP AG and PeopleSoft, the DOJ said in court papers filed Monday to support its lawsuit to block the acquisition.