This is a pretty broad field. There are some 700 business application companies, and SAP and Microsoft are moving in. You have a lot of change happening with Web services, so there are a lot of choices, aren't there?
There are 700 enterprise application companies, but at the top end of the market, there are really only three big players: SAP, Oracle and PeopleSoft. That is why we believe that severe antitrust issues exist when you put PeopleSoft and Oracle together: from three, you're going to two. And in the mid-market space, where J.D. Edwards lives, that is where the 700 players are. So, when you combine PeopleSoft, one of the three high-end players, with J.D. Edwards, one of the 700, the antitrust issues just aren't there. Is there any way that you could all live as one big happy family if these three companies merge?
I think that our management styles are very different; I think our corporate cultures are very different; and I think the customers that we serve are different. Trying to blend together those unique strengths of all those businesses would be a real challenge. Merging with PeopleSoft was one thing we looked at very carefully, figuring how PeopleSoft and J.D. Edwards would fit together. We came to the conclusion that we would fit very nicely. Our cultures complement each other. Our architectures can complement each other. We're in different segments, different verticals and different market spaces. We have come to the conclusion that PeopleSoft and J.D. Edwards would fit together nicely. We don't have a similar view of Oracle. If you try to put Oracle and J.D. Edwards together, the pieces would not fit together nearly as nicely or as smoothly. And if you were to put PeopleSoft, Oracle and J.D. Edwards together all at the same time, it would be a bit of a challenge. Would it be insurmountable? No. But it would be a challenge. Has Oracle tried to contact you or other members of your management team or board in order to discuss how they see J.D. Edwards fitting into their operation?
We shouldn't comment on that. Speculating about other opportunities doesn't make any sense. What impact has this three-ring circus had on your sales? Are you anticipating that it will affect your next quarterly results?
We're two-thirds through our quarter. About 70 percent of our business happens during the last month of the quarter, so it's too early to tell if this has had any impact on us. Our customer user group put out a press release recently that endorsed the PeopleSoft-J.D. Edwards merger. If J.D. Edwards is not part of any deal, how big of a setback is it for the company?
Based on Monday's announcement, it would be very, very difficult for Oracle to acquire PeopleSoft before J.D. Edwards merges with PeopleSoft. The DOJ issued a second request, and it takes two to six months to answer that. The J.D. Edwards-PeopleSoft merger is set to close at the end of July. So, even if Oracle were to come out and triple the bid, they'd still have antitrust issues. They'd have to answer to the Department of Justice. So, we are on a path to merge, but if it doesn't happen, J.D. Edwards remains a totally viable company.