In-Depth

Briefs: Oracle’s Deep Pockets; Disaster Recovery for NAS Servers

Oracle expects the PeopleSoft acquisition price tag will rise to $7.5 billion; NSI offers NAS-focused version of Double-Take

• By Stephen Swoyer
• 07/29/2003

To no one's surprise, Oracle Corp. appears determined to acquire PeopleSoft.

In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission last Thursday, Oracle disclosed that as a result of PeopleSoft’s acquisition of J.D. Edwards, it will probably have to pay an additional $1.2 billion to go through with its hostile takeover attempt.

Instead of the $6.3 billion that it was prepared to spend prior to PeopleSoft’s acquisition of J.D. Edwards last week, Oracle estimates that it must now spend $7.5 billion to purchase PeopleSoft.

The Redwood Shores, Calif.-based company estimates that it has approximately $6.5 billion in cash and other liquid assets on hand. Credit Suisse First Boston has also promised Oracle an additional $5 billion in credit. The upshot is that Oracle has enough money to finance the $7.5 billion acquisition wholly in cash.

The database giant hasn’t upped its offer—it holds steady at $19.50 per share --but must purchase an additional 53 million shares of PeopleSoft stock, thanks to the terms of that company’s acquisition of J.D. Edwards.

Oracle has been largely ambivalent about taking on J.D. Edwards in addition to PeopleSoft. When it launched its hostile takeover attempt in early June, for example, Oracle’s tender offer included a loophole that would allow it to rescind its offer in the event that PeopleSoft acquired J.D. Edwards. Oracle has since amended that stance, and during a virtual town hall meeting last week with users, Oracle executive vice president affirmed (http://info.101com.com/default.asp?id=2212) that Oracle is prepared to take PeopleSoft with or without J.D. Edwards.

Oracle’s bid is scheduled to expire on August 15th, but in its filing with the SEC, the database giant indicated that it will most likely extend that deadline.

NSI Offers Lower Cost of Windows Disaster Recoveryby Scott Bekker (Courtesy of ENTMag.com)

NSI Software moved to push data replication into more cost-conscious sectors of the enterprise by introducing a workgroup NAS-focused version of its Double-Take product.

The new product, called Double-Take for Windows Workgroup NAS Edition, supports single-processor NAS appliances built with the Windows Server Appliance Kit, which is a componentized version of Windows 2000 Advanced Server that OEMs can use to build devices. Available this week, the new version of Double-Take starts at about $2,500 for each NAS server the NSI software is loaded on.

Double-Take provides real-time, continuous backup and automatic failover capabilities for software-based disaster recovery. Previously in its Double-Take for Windows line, NSI offered editions for Windows 2000 Server, Advanced Server and Datacenter Server.

NSI positions the new edition as appropriate for file serving, file sharing between offices and consolidation of home directories for centralized backup. Bob Guilbert, NSI vice president of marketing and business development, says NSI expects to find a market for the NAS edition with small to medium-sized businesses and distributed enterprises such as banks supporting branches and retail companies supporting stores.

"With the Windows-powered NAS environment, there does seem to be some price sensitivity there. From a unit perspective, many people are buying devices in the $2,000-$5,000 range," Guilbert said. That level of spending on the base NAS appliance is appropriate for buying the NSI software to guarantee high availability for those machines that need it, Guilbert said.