Stacy Cowley and Joris Evers

Oracle Corp. will eliminate about 5,000 jobs following its US$10.3 billion acquisition of PeopleSoft, the company said Friday. Oracle said it began notifying affected workers on Friday and most worker notifications of the layoffs will be completed in the next 10 days. The company expects its remaining workforce to stand at 50,000 employees. Before its acquisition by Oracle, PeopleSoft had about 11,000 employees.

The judge presiding over the U.S. Department of Justice's (DOJ) attempt to block Oracle Corp.'s proposed takeover of rival software maker PeopleSoft Inc. ruled in Oracle's favour on Thursday, removing one obstacle preventing the hostile acquisition.

After lots of speculation in the past few days, Microsoft Corp. on Thursday announced a revamped licensing scheme. The setup, which Microsoft sees as a first step to offering software as a service, will coexist with its so-called perpetual licensing scheme now in place, Microsoft said.