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.
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday inaugurated the Danjiang Bridge across the Tamsui River in New Taipei City, saying that the structure would be an architectural icon and traffic artery for Taiwan. Feted as a major engineering achievement, the Danjiang Bridge is 920m long, 211m tall at the top of its pylon, and is the longest single-pylon asymmetric cable-stayed bridge in the world, the government’s Web site for the structure said. It was designed by late Iraqi-British architect Zaha Hadid. The structure, with a maximum deck of 70m, accommodates road and light rail traffic, and affords a 200m navigation channel for boats,
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