Oracle may need $1 billion more to buy PeopleSoft
New York: Oracle has said that its hostile bid to buy PeopleSoft will cost about $1 billion more because its target is issuing new shares to acquire JD Edwards & Company. Oracle's offer is now valued at about $7.25 billion, according to documents submitted to securities regulators by the world's second largest software maker, said reports. The $19.50-a-share offer earlier was valued at about $6.3 billion, including an estimated figure for the payment of PeopleSoft options.

The need for the additional funds by Oracle was highly anticipated by Wall Street as the likelihood of the J D Edwards deal closing increased. Business software maker PeopleSoft won control of JD Edwards last week after 88 per cent of its smaller rival's investors agreed to sell their shares to PeopleSoft.
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Microsoft to add 5,000 jobs
Redmond: Microsoft will add as many as 5,000 jobs and increase research and development spending by as much as 8 per cent in the current fiscal year. Microsoft, which is maturing into a sprawling enterprise with distinct business divisions, also confirmed that it will overhaul its financial structure to give its business segments more autonomy. Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates said the company will continue to boost spending to invest in future technology and spend as much as $6.9 billion on R&D during its current fiscal year to June 2004.

"We're at the beginning of what we can do with software," Gates said. Microsoft also launched its plan to give its business divisions more control over their financial management by installing chief financial officers in each segment, who also report to John Connors, Microsoft's top CFO.
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Kodak to cut 6,000 jobs
New York: Eastman Kodak has said that it will cut up to 9 per cent of its workforce and posted a 60 per cent drop in second-quarter profits. Despite the soft results, shares rose as much as 10 per cent on views Kodak has come to grips with some of its problems, and a belief Kodak may not cut its dividend, which at about 7 per cent has the highest yield among blue chip stocks. Rochester, New York-based Kodak, the leading maker of photographic film, which has been scrambling for alternative markets film demand shrinks, said it would cut 4,500-6,000 jobs, or between 6 per cent and 9 per cent of its global work force.

The cuts would be made primarily in corporate administrative departments, manufacturing and research and development, the company said. "I think reality has hit them in the face," said analyst Shannon Cross of Cross Research. "The economy did not come back like they had hoped and they had said that if it did not come back they would look at cutting costs."
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Sony profits down 98% in Q1
Tokyo: Sony Corp's net profit tumbled 98 per cent in the latest quarter, battered by slumping sales for its Trinitron televisions, audio systems and Vaio personal computers. The world's largest consumer electronics maker said that group net profit totalled 1.12 billion yen ($9.43 million) for the first fiscal quarter ended June 30. That compared with a year-ago group net profit of 57.18 billion yen.
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