{"id":116,"date":"2026-11-02T17:11:45","date_gmt":"2026-11-02T17:11:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/betteryoucoaching.com\/blog\/?p=116"},"modified":"2026-11-02T17:21:44","modified_gmt":"2026-11-02T17:21:44","slug":"chapter-six-oracle-acquires-peoplesoft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/betteryoucoaching.com\/blog\/2026\/11\/02\/chapter-six-oracle-acquires-peoplesoft\/","title":{"rendered":"Chapter Six: Oracle Acquires PeopleSoft"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n\nWhere were you when\u2026?<\/strong>\n

\nThe first men walked on the moon? Reagan was shot? Kobe Bryant\u2019s helicopter crashed?\n<\/p>\n

\nI remember many significant events in my lifetime, and I can usually tell you exactly where I was when I heard the news.\n<\/p>\n

\nI was in the offices of a major insurance company in San Francisco, staring out the window over the city, listening to an emergency PeopleSoft All Hands call. I remember both Dave Duffield and Phil Wilmington explaining that it was official: PeopleSoft had been acquired by Oracle. <\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong>\n\nAfter more than a year of fighting off the takeover, Oracle made the shareholders an offer the Board could not refuse. $26.50 a share. $10.3 billion.\n<\/p>\n

\nThere were 11,000 of us. Shortly after the acquisition closed in January 2005, Oracle eliminated approximately 5,000 positions, many of them PeopleSoft team members. I wasn\u2019t part of that first wave. In fact, I stayed with Oracle for another five years.\n<\/p>\n

\nLooking back, the acquisition taught me a lot about change, leadership, culture, and the people who make a business successful. Here are some of the lessons I took away.\n<\/p>\n

\n1. The enemy isn\u2019t always who you think they are.<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n

\nLong before the acquisition, we viewed Oracle as the \u201cevil empire.\u201d They were our competitors in the ERP market, and we firmly believed we had superior products and a better company.\n<\/p>\n

\nWhen we got into the integration activities and began working with our peers in Oracle Services, we met talented, welcoming people who were genuinely interested in our business. Not everyone, to be honest, but many.\n<\/p>\n

\nWe shared our Services model: Sell-Deliver-Staff. The Oracle Services team saw the value in our model, and we worked collaboratively to shift the organization toward that approach.\n<\/p>\n

\nIt was a good reminder that what may happen at the leadership level doesn\u2019t necessarily reflect the people you\u2019ll be working alongside every day.\n<\/p>\n

\n2. Integration takes patience, and sometimes a change in mindset.<\/strong>\n\n<\/p>\n

Getting on the same page around resource tracking, margin calculations, and other foundational Services concepts wasn\u2019t easy. We had different systems, processes, and ways of thinking about running the business.\n<\/p>\n

\nIt took patience, engaging the right people, and helping PeopleSoft team members understand that some things would need to change.\n<\/p>\n

\nNot everything could or should stay the way it had been.\n<\/p>\n

\n3. People leave, and that\u2019s okay.\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong>\nMany PeopleSoft employees felt they simply couldn\u2019t work for Oracle, specifically for Larry Ellison. Some left shortly after the acquisition.\n<\/p>\n

\nPeopleSoft had a healthy partner community, and Services professionals were in demand. There were opportunities elsewhere.\n<\/p>\n

\nThis is common in acquisitions. People leave for different reasons. They may not want to make the shift, may feel working for the acquiring company compromises their pride or integrity, or simply see a better opportunity.\n\n<\/p>\n

They\u2019re not forsaking their peers or the company they helped build. They\u2019ve made a personal decision about what\u2019s right for them.\n<\/p>\n

\n4. People stay, too. And they need leadership.\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong>\nOthers stay, sometimes feeling a little conflicted about the decision.\n<\/p>\n

\nThis is where leadership really matters. You have people looking to you for guidance and an example. They want to know they\u2019ll be okay if they stay. They want to believe they still have careers that can develop and that they can succeed in this new environment.\n<\/p>\n

\nDeciding to stay isn\u2019t admitting defeat.\n<\/p>\n

\nI think of it like a field change at halftime. You\u2019re still playing the game, but now you\u2019re heading toward a different goalpost. You can absolutely do it, but you have to decide you want to be part of the team and score in the right direction.\n<\/p>\n

\nAs leaders, our job is to help people see that possibility.\n<\/p>\n

\n5. Be open to learning a different way of doing business.<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n

\nCompanies have processes that are similar, and others that are wildly different.\n<\/p>\n

\nIf you\u2019re going to thrive in a new environment, you have to be willing to learn. Sometimes that means asking, \u201cWhy is this how it\u2019s done?\u201d when a process seems cumbersome, duplicative, or just plain dumb.\n<\/p>\n

\nIt takes courage to question the status quo, particularly when you\u2019re the one who just joined the organization.\n<\/p>\n

\nYou also have to pick your battles. Not every hill is worth climbing. Understand what matters, where you can influence change, and where it\u2019s better to adapt.\n<\/p>\n

\nFrom being acquired to leading an acquisition<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n

\nIn January 2006, Oracle acquired Siebel. By then, I had a different perspective on acquisitions, and I was asked to lead the integration of the Siebel Services team into Oracle.\n<\/p>\n

\nMy experience integrating PeopleSoft Services, along with an understanding of what the newly acquired team was going through, were key factors in selecting me for the role.\n<\/p>\n

\nWe had many of the same conversations with the Siebel team that we\u2019d had with PeopleSoft. But this time, the path was clearer, and the process was much smoother.\n<\/p>\n

\nI had learned a few additional lessons along the way:\n<\/p>\n