Oracle goes back to court over PeopleSoft bid

Oracle will appear in court in the US next Monday to fight for its $7.7bn hostile bid for rival PeopleSoft, just over a year since it began its campaign.

The software giant is scheduled formally to dispute the Department of Justice's definition of the business application suite market as being too narrow, a definition which is key to its battle for PeopleSoft.

Oracle believes that Microsoft, Siebel and smaller vendors should be included in the definition, as well as PeopleSoft, SAP and Oracle.

The trial is expected to take four weeks. But even after this, the deal still faces scrutiny from European regulators.

Analysts believe that the bid, and subsequent legal manoeuvrings, have had little impact on customers.

"At the moment, this is not adversely affecting customers. It has been diverting some attention for some people in upper management at PeopleSoft," said David Bradshaw, principal analyst at Ovum.