Who Shot PeopleSoft's Craig Conway?
It remains to be seen whether or not Delaware Chancery Court Judge Leo Strine, pictured here entering the courtroom for this afternoon's session, this week will side with Oracle and declare void PeopleSoft's poison-pill strategy designed to stave off the hostile takeover bid. Before then it may become moot; if Oracle ups its current $21 tender offer for example, and promises a quick transaction, perhaps PeopleSoft will dismantle the defensive measures itself.
One of the questions asked of ex-CEO Craig Conway in the morning session today was whether, in June, 2003, when he was still PeopleSoft's supremo - right after Larry Ellison's hostile takeover bid for PeopleSoft was announced - he characterized Oracle's tender offer as "atrociously bad behavior from a company with a history of atrociously bad behavior."
He did.
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Craig Conway, former CEO of PeopleSoft, on his way into Delaware Chancery Court to testify today
(Wilmington, Delaware, October 6, 2004) Photo Copyright: SYS-CON Media
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Attorneys accompanying Conway heard him testify he'd called Oracle a "sociopathic" company
(Wilmington, Delaware, October 6, 2004) Photo Copyright: SYS-CON Media
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Fired by the PeopleSoft board last week, Conway and his legal team plus police escort in the courthouse
(Wilmington, Delaware, October 6, 2004) Photo Copyright: SYS-CON Media
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Vice Chancellor Leo E. Strine Jr. returning to the Delaware Chancery Court after lunch
(Wilmington, Delaware, October 6, 2004) Photo Copyright: SYS-CON Media
Had he likened Ellison to Genghis Khan, who raped and pillaged his way across Asia to create an empire that stretched from the Pacific to the Black Sea?
Yes he had. His general approach had been to "vilify" Oracle, he conceded.
But he did not call his former boss - Conway is a former Oracle employee - a "sociopath." That, anyway was the testimony of Conway before Judge Leo Strine in Wilmington, Delaware, this morning.
"I have referred to Oracle as a sociopathic company," Conway told the court. But he denied ever calling Oracle's Larry Ellison himself a sociopath.
SYS-CON has tried to reach John Chen, CEO of Sybase, Inc, which continues to battle Oracle in the core enterprise database market and which has also found recent success as a marketing partner with PeopleSoft. Mr. Chen is presently in Europe on business and has as of yet offered no comment.
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