EU Again Suspends Oracle-PeopleSoft Investigation

The European Union (EU) Commission said yesterday that it has temporarily suspended its antitrust investigation into Oracle's $9.4 billion hostile takeover bid of PeopleSoft. The EU Commission has paused the investigation because it is asking for more information from Oracle about Oracle's market share in human resources, bookkeeping, stock management, payroll administration, and financial management software.

"We have received the request from the European Commission for additional information on our proposed transaction for PeopleSoft," Oracle's Vice President of Corporate Communications Jim Finn said in a statement. "We will continue to cooperate with the Commission, and will respond as quickly as possible."

This is the second time that the investigation has been temporarily halted in order to gather more information from Oracle. The EU Commission was originally slated to decide on the matter by March 30, and until this newest suspension of the investigation, was due to make a decision by May 11. No new deadline has been set for deciding whether to block the sale.