PeopleSoft To Acquire Vantive; Integrated eBusiness Solution Creates 360 Degree View of the Customer Relationship - Company Business and Marketing

Edge: Work-Group Computing Report, Oct 18, 1999

PeopleSoft Inc. Monday announced a definitive agreement to acquire The Vantive Corporation in a stock for stock transaction. The merger will enable the combined company to offer a comprehensive eBusiness solution providing robust applications to attract, service, retain, and analyze customers. Building upon several product integrations completed during the course of a long-term partnership, PeopleSoft will now fully integrate Vantive's customer-focused solutions into PeopleSoft's broad offering of eBusiness applications, enabling the combination of customer information, transactional data and business intelligence for a 360-degree view of the customer lifecycle.

The merger will be structured as a tax-free exchange of stock at a fixed ratio of .825 shares of PeopleSoft common stock for each outstanding share, warrant, and option of Vantive, and is anticipated to be accounted for as a pooling of interests. Based upon PeopleSoft's closing stock price of $17.25 on October 8, 1999, the aggregate value of the transaction is approximately $433 million. The transaction, which has been approved by the boards of each company, is subject to the approval of Vantive's stockholders and customary closing conditions including compliance with applicable regulatory requirements. The merger is expected to close in the first quarter of 2000.

Monday's announcement will position PeopleSoft as a major player in the customer relationship management market, offering more than 3,000 PeopleSoft customers worldwide a broad array of customer applications that are functionally rich, highly scalable, and Internet-enabled. Likewise, more than 850 Vantive customers will gain a single source for integrated eBusiness applications.

"Vantive provides a truly compelling customer solution to complement PeopleSoft's Applications for eBusiness," said Craig Conway, president and chief executive officer at PeopleSoft. "PeopleSoft needed a partner that has embraced the Internet as the next forum for global business, cares deeply about its customers' successes, and has a world-class customer relationship management product line. We got all of that and more with Vantive, and we look forward to their becoming part of the PeopleSoft family."

With the addition of Vantive's broad suite of customer-centric solutions, PeopleSoft's solutions can help companies generate more sales and offer higher levels of customer service. For example, by integrating Vantive Sales with PeopleSoft's Remote Order Entry and Order Management applications, sales representatives can convert leads, present quotes, generate orders, confirm inventory and fulfill orders in real-time. Business intelligence solutions from PeopleSoft's Enterprise Performance Management suite provide customer profitability, customer retention, and other customer analytics enabling strategic decision-making.

"Vantive is joining forces with a winner today," said Tom Thomas, Vantive chairman and chief executive officer. "PeopleSoft and Vantive have reputations for quality technology and products and unparalleled focus on customer satisfaction, and we're pleased to announce this union to our customers and stockholders. Vantive has enormous strengths in customer relationship management products and intellectual capital. We needed a partner with back-office leadership, financial strength, and market reach. That partner -- hands down -- is PeopleSoft. We are very excited about our future together."

Availability

Organizations in need of an integrated eBusiness solution can benefit from today's merger immediately. Vantive and PeopleSoft products can be integrated today via Vantive QuickConnect for PeopleSoft, a packaged integration solution announced in August 1999. In addition, PeopleSoft certified enterprise integration with Vantive under PeopleSoft's Open Integration Framework program earlier this year, allowing real-time transaction of customer information between Vantive and PeopleSoft enterprise applications. PeopleSoft will unveil a combined product strategy for customer relationship management in early 2000.

Changing Customer Service Models with the Internet One of the many synergies between PeopleSoft and Vantive is a focus on advanced Internet architectures. Vantive Web Self Service enables organizations to extend Web-based support functionality to customers, decreasing support and service costs while increasing customer satisfaction. Companies can significantly reduce support costs by providing on-line access to problem resolutions, product documentation, FAQs, and problem report status. Vantive Web Self Service also provides a customizable personal home page and proactive email notification for support customers via the Web.

PeopleSoft Third Quarter 1999 Results

PeopleSoft's fiscal third quarter result will be released on Tuesday, October 19. For the quarter, the company expects to report total revenue in the range of approximately $290 million to $310 million. The resulting third quarter earnings are expected to be approximately break-even to earnings of $0.02 per share.