Oracle staged a conference call Monday to clear up "misconceptions in the market" and to say that it hadn't been dissuaded from the PeopleSoft acquisition by the length of time the process was taking but that it wasn't going to pay any unreasonable price for the joint either. Oracle made its hostile bid in June since then PeopleSoft stock has risen above Oracle's offer of $19.50 a share.

Oracle said it was sure once the Justice Department and European Commission had all the information and had mulled it all over that the regulators would give Oracle the green light.

It also said that it serious doubts about of how PeopleSoft is being governed.

Oracle claimed that it had been advised by experts that PeopleSoft couldn't legally book the revenues from contracts that were cut because of PeopleSoft's offer to refund the money anywhere from two to five times over if Oracle buys the company, which, if true, PeopleSoft would find altogether distressing.

Oracle played the refund promise as proof of "management entrenchment" and observed that PeopleSoft has "backtracked" on what would trigger the refund several times, suggesting a certain flightiness.

Among other things, PeopleSoft last week extended the rebate plan until the end of the year.

Oracle and others accuse PeopleSoft of artificially inflating its revenue numbers thanks to this refund scheme. PeopleSoft has also refused to break out the numbers for its recent JD Edwards acquisition, raising suspicions of weakness.

Oracle repeated a remark it's made before about how PeopleSoft experienced a double-digit revenue decline for seven quarters.

Oracle's fallback scheme for acquiring PeopleSoft is to replace PeopleSoft's board next spring. To do that, it has to come up with a slate of proposed directors now, it said. It will seek all four seats that will come up for re-election. It'll come up with some names before the regulators approve the takeover.

Oracle described any acquisition of PeopleSoft as a "medium to small transaction" given Oracle's $65 billion market cap and continued to claim that it would be good for competition and customers alike. Its promise to support PeopleSoft software for the next 10 years was "unprecedented," it said, something even PeopleSoft hasn't vowed.

• Classic Ellison
• Food Fight!! Food Fight!!
• Oracle-PeopleSoft, God Bless 'em, Turns into an Old-fashioned Donnybrook
• PeopleSoft Posts Results
• PeopleSoft Claims Oracle Bid Has Sputtered Out
• PeopleSoft to Offer Up 750-1,000 Living Sacrifices
• Oracle Extends PeopleSoft Tender
• Oracle Headed for Proxy Fight
• DOJ May Challenge Oracle Bid for PeopleSoft
• Is Oracle Signaling Its Run at PeopleSoft Is Over?
• PeopleSoft Reports Loss but Wows Street
• EC to Ponder Oracle-PeopleSoft Merger
• Oracle Moves on Plan to Pack PeopleSoft's Board
• Ellison Triumph: Oracle Can Proceed with PeopleSoft Takeover Bid, Court Decides
• Oracle's PeopleSoft Takeover Bid Can Go Ahead, Judge Rules