PeopleSoft steady

PeopleSoft said yesterday that its quarterly earnings were little changed from a year ago, helped by a defensive contract provision that promised customer rebates of up to five times software costs if PeopleSoft were acquired.

California-based PeopleSoft, which is trying to fend off a US$6.3 billion ($11 billion) hostile takeover bid from Oracle, posted second-quarter net profit of US$36.5 million, compared with net profit of US$36 million last year.

Revenue rose to US$497.4 million from US$482.2 million last year.