Oracle buys PeopleSoft

NEW YORK: Oracle Corp. said rival business software maker PeopleSoft Inc.'s board has accepted a sweetened purchase offer of about $10.3 billion, ending a long and bitter hostile takeover battle.

Oracle's offer to buy PeopleSoft $26.50 per share was approved by both boards of directors, Oracle said in a statement. Oracle's previous offer was $24 a share.

The deal should close by early January.

Redwood Shores, California-based Oracle, which reported better-than-expected fiscal second-quarter earnings moments before announcing the PeopleSoft deal, said the acquisition would add about 1 cent per share to its fiscal-fourth quarter results, excluding certain items, and about 2 cents a quarter or eight cents in fiscal 2006.

It will add "a bit more" in its 2007 fiscal year, the company said.