Oracle Ruling May Embolden Dealmakers (Bush judiciary)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A federal judge may have sent a gift to all merger-minded U.S. executives when he rejected the government's request to block Oracle Corp.'s bid for PeopleSoft Inc. last week.

Experts said the ruling marked the latest of several setbacks for antitrust enforcers and could embolden deal makers and give them more leverage when negotiating with the Justice Department (news - web sites) and Federal Trade Commission.

The Justice Department's defeat in the Oracle case came after the FTC was rebuked last month in its effort to block the merger of two Midwestern coal producers, and another judge recently turned down the department's bid to stop a Kansas City dairy cooperative from buying a stake in a milk processor.

"No question that the enforcers' credibility has been hurt by this series of losses," one former antitrust official said.

http://tinyurl.com/6ubgl
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So the Bush* reich-wing judiciary is destroying the anti-trust capabilities of the government. This judge is a real piece of shit.
Judge Vaughn walker was appointed by poppy Bush. He is a rabid anti-environmentalist, and always on the side of big business (he decided the ATM double-chraging case in favor of the banks).

http://air.fjc.gov/servlet/tGetInfo?jid=2483

messes, just like they did with the GE/Honeywell merger. It was all hunky-dory with the US, but Europe would have nothing to do with it. I hope they do the same here, because if they don't, then a REALLY good software product will be canabalized by an inferior one, and a LOT of good people will lose their jobs. ORACLE SUCKS! Great database, but their ERP (enterprise resource planning) software sucks!

Part of me wishes Oracle would take it over, and quit supporting the product. But, then we would probably just get stuck with something worse.