Oracle: More takeovers on way

BUSINESS software giant Oracle's combative chief executive Larry Ellison says his firm is on the prowl for three or four acquisitions in addition to its $7.7bn (£4.2bn) hostile bid for rival PeopleSoft.

In the witness stand in a San Francisco court during the anti-trust trial over the deal, Ellison said all the potential targets were publicly traded companies, but he would not name them.

Ellison said one of the companies Oracle had its eye on was an applications provider, another involved in 'business intelligence' and a third a software infrastructure, or middleware, provider.

He said the company had to go on the hunt for acquisitions to grow in a maturing market.

The government is trying to block the takeover of PeopleSoft, saying there is not enough competition in the sector. Oracle refutes this and has dragged other companies into the process, revealing secret plans in the process, such as Microsoft's talks with Germany's SAP.

Earlier testimony and evidence submitted at trial identified seven still-listed companies that Oracle had considered acquiring before it launched its bid for PeopleSoft.

Ellison told the court that Oracle faced a tough market and was up against niche providers such as outsourcing firm Automatic Data Processing and new entrants like Microsoft. 'The moment they enter, prices drop like a rock,' Ellison said of his longtime rival, Microsoft.

'Microsoft is coming after us very aggressively. I don't think Microsoft will be able to monopolise the business applications market like they did the browser market, but they are going to be a strong competitor,' Ellison said.