PeopleSoft goes a bundle on IBM

'Most Significant Enterprise Applications Alliance in History,' it sez here...

By John Oates • Get more from this author

Posted in Applications, 22nd September 2004 10:02 GMT

PeopleSoft will include free copies of IBM's WebSphere middleware products with every set of its applications sold. Both companies will market the joint products and will collaborate to improve future interoperability.

The firms are opening a "business process interoperability lab" to integrate and test applications, and will spend $1bn on the partnership over the next five years. The two will jointly develop software aimed at three specific industries: financial services, insurance and telecoms.

Craig Conway, chief executive and president of PeopleSoft, said: "This is the largest and most significant agreement that PeopleSoft and IBM have ever made."

Some observers see the deal as another way for PeopleSoft to protect itself from the unwelcome attentions of Larry Ellison's Oracle.This week PeopleSoft announced large increases in severance pay for its employees in the event of a takeover. By aligning its products more closely with those of IBM, it could erect another defence against an Oracle takeover.

Press release here. ®