Beginning in 2003, Oracle began to maneuver for control of the PeopleSoft company. In June 2003, Oracle made a $7 billion bid in a hostile corporate takeover attempt. In February 2004, Oracle increased their bid to approximately $9.4 billion, a 33% increase; this offer was also rejected forthwith by PeopleSoft's Board of Directors. Later that month, the U.S. Department of Justice filed suit to block Oracle, on the grounds that the acquisition would break anti-trust laws. In September 2004, the suit was rejected by a U.S. Federal Judge, who found that the Justice Department had not proven its anti-trust case. In October, the same decision was handed down by the European Commission. Though Oracle had reduced its offer to $7.7 billion in May, it again raised its bid in November to $9.4 billion, marking a 14% increase. In December 2004, Oracle announced that it had signed a definitive merger agreement to acquire PeopleSoft for approximately $10.3 billion. The following January, Oracle announced plans to cut approximately 9% of the 55,000 staff of the combined companies, maintaining at least 90% of PeopleSoft's product development and support staff.[4] Oracle moved to capitalize on the perceived strong brand loyalty within the JD Edwards user community by rebranding former JD Edwards products. Thus PeopleSoft EnterpriseOne became JD Edwards EnterpriseOne and PeopleSoft World became JD Edwards World. Oracle has announced that a new product, Fusion, is to be released in the near future. Oracle says Fusion will take the best aspects of the PeopleSoft, JD Edwards, and Oracle Applications and merge them into a new product suite.
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