"We are missing relevant information ... on the market position of Oracle in the human resource and financial management software," a spokesman for the European Commission said Thursday. He noted that Oracle itself argued the information was crucial during its recent closed-door hearing, but did not deliver it by the April 12 deadline.
"We have received the request from the European Commission for additional information on our proposed transaction for PeopleSoft," Oracle VP of corporate communications Jim Finn said in a statement after Thursday's announcement. "We will continue to cooperate with the Commission, and will respond as quickly as possible."
It's the second time that the investigation has been temporarily halted in order to gather more information from Oracle. The EU 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.
In February, the U.S. Justice Department filed a lawsuit to block Oracle's bid for PeopleSoft, contending that the proposed merger would hurt the business applications software market. U.S. regulators say an Oracle takeover would cause prices to rise and innovation to diminish in the $20 billion market for business applications software--the computer coding that automates a wide range of administrative jobs.