Oracle! Chalk one up for Oracle in its battle against its former allies at the Antitrust Division. Yesterday, a federal court threw out DOJ’s (somewhat screwy) challenge to Oracle’s takeover bid for PeopleSoft. Using some market share ledgermain, DOJ maintained that the merged firm would dominate some specific, narrow, carefully defined, somewhat imaginary sub-sub-markets of the business software market. Never mind that it’s quite a crowded field, with major competitors such as SAP, countless minor players, a looming giant (Microsoft of course), and changing technology that would undermine any dominance anyway. Despite the win, the issue isn’t settled yet, as DOJ may still appeal, and an investigation is still ongoing in Europe (remember SAP?). Of course, if Oracle needs any advice on how to proceed, there probably are a few folks at Microsoft who can share their experiences.
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Posted in: Antitrust & Competition Policy, Privacy, Security & Government Surveillance
The Technology Liberation Front is the tech policy blog dedicated to keeping politicians' hands off the 'net and everything else related to technology.
