Friday, October 01, 2004

WSJ.com - PeopleSoft's Board Removes Conway as President, CEO

WSJ.com - PeopleSoft's Board Removes Conway as President, CEO "PeopleSoft Inc.'s board fired Craig Conway as the company's president and chief executive as a result of a "loss of confidence in Mr. Conway's ability to continue to lead the company."
The abrupt move comes as PeopleSoft is attempting to fight off a hostile takeover bid from Oracle Corp., and has maintained that Oracle's bid is inadequate. The company didn't signal a change in its position on the hostile bid, but investors sent the stock up in early trading. PoepleSoft shares opened up 6.8% Friday to $21.21 on the Nasdaq Stock Market.
The Pleasanton, Calif., company named Dave Duffield, its founder and chairman, as the new CEO. The company appointed Kevin Parker and Phil Wilmington as co-presidents, and Aneel Bhusri as vice chairman of the board. All of the changes are effective immediately. The company said all of these decisions received the unanimous vote of the independent directors."

This suggests Oracle is having a good day (significantly increases the probability of Oracle acquiring PeopleSoft) and that IBM, which just unveiled a major partnership with PeopleSoft, may be having a bad day.

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