Oracle has clashed with rival Microsoft in dozens of recent business applications software deals, according to sales records that provide a glimpse at some of the evidence likely to be introduced on Wednesday in a pivotal legal showdown.
Microsoft and its subsidiaries bumped into Oracle at 94 companies looking to buy accounting or personnel software during 2002 and 2003, the documents said. Eight of those deals involved large organisations — a market niche that’s the focal point of an antitrust trial that could decide the fate of Oracle’s $7,7-billion bid for rival PeopleSoft.
The sales breakdown, released to reporters on Tuesday, was turned over to the Department of Justice in January as part of Oracle’s lobbying effort to win antitrust approval of its PeopleSoft bid.
The Justice Department eventually sued to block the deal, alleging an Oracle takeover of PeopleSoft would raise prices and diminish innovation in a software niche catering to major US companies.
The case is built on the premise that Oracle, PeopleSoft and Germany-based SAP are the only software makers capable of providing the sophisticated software that large companies depend upon to automate a wide range of financial and personnel management jobs.
Redwood Shores-based Oracle has spent the first two weeks of the trial ridiculing the government’s theory, contending smaller rivals such as Lawson Software have already expanded into the large-company market, with Microsoft poised to make things even more competitive.
Government regulators say they will present evidence that Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft plans to concentrate on selling business applications software to mid-sized customers for at least the next few years.
The conflicting viewpoints will come to head in federal court on Wednesday when the government plans to call its final witness, Douglas Burgum, who runs Microsoft’s ”business solutions” division.
If Oracle can persuade US District Judge Vaughn Walker that Microsoft shapes up as a formidable competitive threat in business applications, the company stands a better chance of prevailing in a nonjury trial expected to end in early July.
Burgum’s appearance is expected to give Oracle’s attorneys a chance to dig deeper into one of the trial’s major revelations — Microsoft’s takeover flirtation last year with SAP. Microsoft confirmed the talks in a statement issued just before the trial started, saying the discussions ended after both sides decided the merger would be too complicated to pull off.
Oracle believes Microsoft’s interest in SAP underscores how determined the company is to establish a larger presence in the business applications market. The government says the aborted talks reflect how difficult it would be for any company to break into the upper crust of the business applications market.
Justice Department attorneys are confident Burgum will validate the government’s position that Microsoft won’t be ready to compete in the large-company market for several years. -Sapa-AP