PeopleSoft sued for $510m over ‘vapourware’

'Concealments were willful, malicious, and done with ill will and spite'

By John Oates • Get more from this author

Posted in Hardware, 31st March 2004 11:22 GMT

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PeopleSoft is being sued for fraud and breach of contract over its agreement to provide software to Cleveland State University.

The suit, lodged by Ohio State attorney general, complains that PeopleSoft software was missing promised features and did not run properly on IBM's DB/2 database - despte assurances from the company that it would.

The university claims that financial aid for students is still not running properly now. It described the initial installation as "woefully inadequate". It also accuses the software vendor of hiding important information: "concealments were willful, malicious, and done with ill will and spite."

The suit alleges: "PeopleSoft knew or should have known that each of these written and oral representations was false . . . in fact, the Student Modules generally, and the Financial Aid in particular, were at the time little more than vaporware in an extremely early stage of development."

Cleveland State University chose PeopleSoft in 1996 to upgrade its student administration systems. Ohio State is also seeking unspecified damages from PeopleSoft partner Kaludis Consulting Group.

Here is the University magazine view of events. ®