NEW YORK, Oct 1 (AFP) - Business software maker PeopleSoft said Friday it was dumping president and chief executive Craig Conway, who has led the fight against a hostile takeover effort from rival Oracle.
The Silicon Valley group said its board voted to appoint Dave Duffield, the company founder and chairman, as CEO, and announced the appointment of two co-presidents.
"These appointments followed the board`s decision to terminate Craig Conway as president and CEO of the company, effective immediately," the statement said.
"The board said its decision resulted from a loss of confidence in Mr. Conway`s ability to continue to lead the company. All of these decisions received the unanimous vote of the independent directors. The board would like to thank Mr. Conway for his contributions to PeopleSoft."
The board appointed Kevin Parker and Phil Wilmington as co-presidents. It also named Aneel Bhusri vice chairman.
It was not immediately clear what impact the moves would have on the Oracle hostile takeover bid, one of the most bitter corporate fights to hit the US high-tech industry.
While PeopleSoft has managed so far to fend off the bid from Oracle, that effort suffered a setback earlier this month when a judge ruled that the government cannot block the proposed 7.7-billion-dollar merger on antitrust grounds.
Analyst Art Hogan of Jefferies and Co. said it wass too early to say for sure that the ouster of Conway clears the way for a merger with Oracle, but Wall Street appears to be seeing it that way.
PeopleSoft`s shares rose nearly eight percent in pre-market trading.
"The obvious interpretation is that this makes the deal more doable," Hogan said. Hogan expected to see strength in the software sector on anticipation of more merger activity.
"If this deal happens, its starts the daisy chain of a whole lot more merger and acquisition activity," he said.
Hugh Johnson of First Albany said he`s unsure if the Conway ouster clears the way for the Oracle bid, but he added "that certainly would be my knee-jerk reaction."
PeopleSoft provided few clues as to its course of action in the face of the Oracle bid: "Commenting on Oracle`s tender offer, (independent director) Skip Battle noted that all decisions with respect to Oracle`s tender offer have been made on the unanimous recommendation of the Transaction Committee of the Board."