"Oracle scored a significant victory last night when a US judge overturned an attempt by anti-trust authorities to block its $7.7bn (£4.3bn) hostile takeover of rival PeopleSoft," writes David Teather in today's Guardian.
"The justice department alongside 10 states had filed suit earlier this year to prevent the deal, arguing that allowing the takeover to go ahead would reduce competition in the business software market, particularly in the financial and human resource sectors... During a month long trial in San Francisco, Oracle successfully contended that it was an underdog struggling to compete with the likes of Microsoft and SAP.
"The takeover battle has been made all the more contentious by the thorny relationship between Oracle's flamboyant chief Larry Ellison and PeopleSoft boss Craig Conway, who used to work for him."
Comment: It's hard to see Oracle as an "underdog" (can any company trying to stage a £4bn takeover be small enough to warrant that tag?) - but the deal will most likely have to get past the EU's competition commission as well, and that's likely to be a more difficult prospect than the US supreme court.
