PeopleSoft puts poison pill to one side

A customer refund programme designed to reassure PeopleSoft customers in the face of Oracle's hostile $9.4bn takeover bid has not been renewed.

The PeopleSoft Customer Assurance programme promised licence fee refunds, estimated at $800m to $1.5bn, if there was any "majority change" in PeopleSoft's board within the next two years.

The refunds would also apply if customers suffered a reduction in support for PeopleSoft products in the next four years.

PeopleSoft introduced the scheme in June 2003 for three months, renewing it for a second quarter at the end of September. But the company has yet to do so in 2004.

PeopleSoft spokesperson Steve Swasey explained that the board reserved the right to resurrect the programme at a later date, and that it had not yet been terminated.

"We are only a week into the quarter," he told vnunet.com. "It is not right to say that the board has not chosen to extend it. It has not made a decision."

The scheme was launched following Oracle's initial bid for PeopleSoft in June 2003, but the prospect of any PeopleSoft payout is a still a long way off.

The European Commission has reserved the right to stop the clock on its ongoing investigations into Oracle's bid if it is made to wait for appeal evidence.