U.S. Department
of Justice
P3312: Oracle - E-mail: O'Niell To VanDecker Re: Heads Up: META Mentioned In Internal Oracle E-mail In PSFT Lawsuit
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Government Exhibit P3312
(PDF icon) Hi John, As you can see, this was an internal e-mail discussion between me, Sharon and Betty about a draft of yours. Please don't hesitate to call me on my cell phone at 650-888-7961 if you want discuss this personally. As you know, our relationship with META is very important to us. Thanks HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL ORLITF0016167
Great feedback, Betty! As I said in my other e-mail, as long as we "stick to the script" that LJE laid out in the con call --- and you highlight some of those details below --- I'm totally fine. Our call DID provide examples of how we have clear options for supporting customers, and it's annoying that the industry analysts are glossing over it. I don't mind them thumping us for being overly simplistic in migrating customers from PSFT to 11i --- I'm usre it's not as easy as LJE was trying to make it sound like. We've certainly wounded PSFT. I was just reviewing most of the media coverage and the industry analysts concur, our launching this hostile takeover attempt really highlights PSFT's weakness to the whole market. Even if we don't end up closing the deal, this is going to take PSFT time to recover. And, of course, our corporate image of being aggressive, brash, and marching to the tune of a different drummer has been reinforced. I dunno about you guys, but today I was very proud to be an Oracle employee! Betty Cho wrote: Just throwing my two cents into the ring: It will be hard to dissuade META from their opinion that a multi-ERP vendor world will be better for their customers. (Despite the fact that the trend is towards fuller suite offerings - they were really showing their naivete during the conference call when the analysts asserted that Oracle's move to buy PSFT would benefit point solution vendors while in the same breath suggesting that Oracle would deepen the depth and HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL ORLITF0016168 breath of our apps protfolio by acquiring PSFT. A fuller and deeper suite of products is exactly why the suite vendors will have the advantage over best-of-breeds.) However, it's important for META to acknowledge that Oracle announced it's commitment to supporting current PSFT customers. Furthermore, META should not discount that Oracle is offering PSFT customers that following options: 1) Stay on PSFT apps and be supported We need to start pushing the analysts to recognize that Oracle does plan to support PSFT customers and in a few different ways. BC Peggy O'Neil wrote: Evan, John.VanDecker@metagroup.com wrote: Peggy, Wanted to give you the opportunity to review/comment on this piece. Hope all is well! Oracle Attempts to Cash in on ERP On June 9, Oracle will formally make a cash offer to acquire PeopleSoft ($16/share). With the acquisition, Oracle will discontinue selling PeopleSoft products to new prospects. Oracle claims that it will, however, continue to support all PeopleSoft products and being incorporating PeoleSoft features into future versions of the eBusiness Suite (EBS). At issue is the fate of the numerous organizations that currently employ PeopleSoft products. From Oracle's perspective, customers could migrate from PeopleSoft 7.x or 8.x to EBS, although it is questionable as to what it will take for that migration (we believe it will be comparable to a new install), including moving non-Oracle database users to the Oracle database. Oracle gets to preserve its own architecture (e.g., Oracle tools, PL/SQL, forms), and also claims that it will add both horizontal (we suspect PeopleSoft EMP and SRM would be good candidates) and vertical components from the PeopleSoft suite. HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL ORLITF0016169 From our perspective, PeopleSoft will undoubtedly despise this takeover bid and accuse Oracle of disrupting the marketplace/ruining the JD Edwards deal (which should be abandoned if they succeed). The only real issue is whether PeopleSoft can stop it, or get the price raised higher. Bottom Line: While Oracle might be able to succeed with this acquisition, the migration for PeopleSoft customers will be extremely difficult. JD Edwards would remain marginalized, and the key players would become SAP, Oracle, and Microsoft, with IBM missing out on a major opportunity. An ASA, Oracle, PeopleSoft/JDE, Microsoft world provides better choices for our clients. John E. Van Decker Vice President, Technology Research Services john.vandecker@metagroup.com META Group, Inc. (http://www.metagroup.com) Office: 908-454-3930 Cell: 908-419-4169 For briefing, please contact: META Group Return on Intelligence* * A service mark of META Group, Inc. Receive e-mail newsletters and alerts featuring the latest insights and actionable guidance from META Group's industry-leading analysts on important technology, business, and management trends and best practices! Subscribe now at: http://www.metagroup.com/newsletters HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL ORLITF0016170 |