PeopleSoft Acquires J.D. Edwards For $1.7 Billion

The deal, valued at $1.7 billion, is a stock transaction. Under the terms of the agreement, J.D. Edwards stockholders will receive 0.86 PeopleSoft common shares for each outstanding J.D. Edwards common share.

The combined entity will have about $2.8 billion in annual revenue, 13,000 employees and more than 11,000 customers, PeopleSoft executives said.

The deal will enable PeopleSoft, based here, to expand its presence in vertical industries, including manufacturing and distribution, they said.

The move comes on the heels of a disappointing second-quarter earnings report from J.D. Edwards. The vendor posted a loss of $393,000, compared with a year-ago profit of $3.5 million.

Both J.D. Edwards and PeopleSoft work closely with channel partners to sell and implement their products. J.D. Edwards' Distributor Channel of resellers in April sold product to clients including Vanguard Managed Solutions and Pan-o-Gold Baking, among others.

The acquisition was also announced one week before J.D. Edwards convenes its annual user group here, and two weeks before PeopleSoft competitor SAP hosts its SAPPHIRE conference.

PeopleSoft, SAP and J.D. Edwards are all vying for market share by adding CRM and other complementary technologies to the ERP products that initially put them on the map.