BRUSSELS (AFP) - European Union competition authorities are expected Tuesday to clear unconditionally US firm Oracle's hostile takeover of business software rival PeopleSoft, sources say.
EU competition commissioner Mario Monti is judged to have overcome doubts about the deal, which would leave only two big players in the business software market -- Oracle and Germany's SAP.
The 30-member European Commission will deliver its verdict on the deal -- which had been bitterly contested by PeopleSoft -- at a full meeting in Strasbourg on Tuesday.
The commission had set itself a deadline of November 9 to adjudicate on the case. But its Italian anti-trust chief appears keen to clear his in-tray before leaving office at the end of the month to make way for a new EU executive.
Following approval given to the 7.7-billion-dollar transaction by US anti-trust authorities, the commission is expected to deliver its own green light "without condition", an EU source said.
The European Commission launched an in-depth investigation into the deal last November, but has twice been forced to suspend the probe pending further information on the impact the takeover would have on the software market.
The US Justice Department had likewise been concerned about the reduction to only two companies in the market for high-end integrated human resource and financial management software used by big companies and government agencies.
But regulators on both sides of the Atlantic appear to have swallowed their objections.
In the US case, the Justice Department threw in the towel after a judge in California rejected the government's arguments on September 9.
The Justice Department said on October 1 that it would not appeal the judgement, the same day that PeopleSoft dumped the chief executive leading its takeover defence, Craig Conway.
His ouster was seen on Wall Street as clearing the way for the company to agree to the Oracle bid, after Conway had spent months arguing that it significantly undervalued PeopleSoft.
Last Thursday Oracle said it had extended its hostile takeover offer by two weeks to November 5, while maintaining the proposed price at 21 dollars a share.
And with EU approval seemingly pending, Oracle is confident it will win the day.
After the US Justice Department announcement, Oracle chairman Jeffrey Henley said: "This affirms our longstanding belief that the transaction is not anti-competitive."
10/25/2004 - 06:52 GMT - AFP