An antitrust lawsuit blocking Oracle Corp's hostile US$9.4 billion bid for rival PeopleSoft Inc will go to trial June 7, accelerating the timetable for a case that may reveal sensitive information about some of the world's biggest software companies.
US District Judge Vaughn Walker set the trial date in a Wednesday court hearing that also featured a fight to shield prized information collected by the federal government from two of Oracle's in-house attorneys.
The June 7 date means the pivotal trial will start two weeks earlier than Oracle and the Justice Department had requested in a court filing earlier this week.
Walker told lawyers he is eager to get the trial completed so the losing side can make a likely appeal directly to the US Supreme Court. Walker plans to allot roughly a month for Oracle and the Justice Department to make their cases so he might be able to rule in July.
Pleasanton, California-based PeopleSoft already has rejected Oracle's US$26-per-share offer, but the bid might still entice the company's shareholders if Redwood Shores-based Oracle can prevail in the antitrust battle.
The most contentious issue in Wednesday's hearing centered on a motion demanding two of Oracle's in-house attorneys, Dorian Daley and Jeff Ross, be given copies of confidential data that the government collected from 33 companies during an eight-month investigation.
The government agreed that all the information should be turned over to Oracle's law firm, Latham & Watkins, but wants the flexibility to withhold some documents from Daley and Ross, citing the concerns of the companies that turned over the information.
Justice Department lawyer Bruce McDonald said some of the cooperating companies are worried about Oracle exploiting the confidential information to gain a competitive edge.
Oracle attorney Daniel Wall argued his company would be at an unfair advantage if two of its own lawyers didn't have full access to the evidence.
A magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck off the southern coast of Mindanao in the Philippines at 7:38am today, prompting the US Tsunami Warning System to issue an alert for neighboring countries, including Taiwan. The system issued a purple alert indicating a "tsunami threat." The potential threat zone includes Taiwan, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Yap and Palau. Philippine authorities were assessing the damage from the quake, with the office of civil defense seeking to verifying initial reports that 15 people had been killed and 129 injured in the region, mostly from falling debris. Arlene Hollero, disaster chief of Maasim town in the Philippines' Sarangani Province,
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The National Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology yesterday showcased its locally developed variants of the Vision 60 robotic patrol dog, which it plans to deploy on the nation’s outlying territories in the South China Sea. The variants were produced under the Joint Lab project — created by the institute and domestic companies — and assembled with domestically produced motors, lenses and artificial intelligence (AI) systems alongside licensed tech from the US, Missile and Rocket Systems Research Division deputy director Jen Kuo-kang (任國光) told the media event at a military base in Taipei’s Dazhi (大直) area. Taiwan has built up its strengths
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