| Subject: Oracle takes control of Retek |
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Date Posted: 15:15:05 04/06/05 Wed
Oracle takes control of Retek
Company to appoint five board members as deal closes
By Michael Paige, MarketWatch
Last Update: 4:36 PM ET April 6, 2005
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LOS ANGELES (MarketWatch) -- Oracle Corp. said early Wednesday that it now controls Retek Inc. after 83% of shares in the provider of software to the retail industry were tendered in its sweetened offer of $11.25 a share, setting the stage for the deal to close next week.
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Along the with 9.8% stake in the Minneapolis-based company Oracle (ORCL: news, chart, profile) previously had acquired, the corporate software giant now controls 92.8% of Retek's outstanding stock (RETK: news, chart, profile) .
Oracle, based in Redwood Shores, Calif., also said it would appoint five people to Retek's eight-member board while the purchase, worth around $670 million in total, is pending.
Retek shareholders tendered 47.7 million shares during the offering period, which ended Wednesday, according to Oracle. The latter company, led by outspoken Chief Executive Larry Ellison, began a second offering period at the same price that closes April 11 to allow remaining shareholders time to tender their holdings.
Oracle may extend that deadline, however.
Last month, Oracle beat Germany-based rival SAP AG (SAP: news, chart, profile) in the bidding for Retek by sweetening its offer to $11.25 a share -- a price SAP found too expensive. SAP's highest offer was $11 for each Retek share. See full story.
Ellison has said the purchase of Retek was designed to help protect his firm's position in the North American market for business applications software. The acquisition is also aimed at boosting Oracle's position in providing software for the retail industry, a largely untapped and potentially lucrative segment.
Retek supplies a list of prominent companies in the retail industry with software to help them carry out a variety of tasks, such as managing sales and tracking financial and inventory data. It has more than 200 customers in 20 countries, including well-known U.S. retailers like Best Buy (BBY: news, chart, profile) , Gap (GPS: news, chart, profile) and Nordstrom (JWN: news, chart, profile) .
Retek had revenue of $174.2 million last year and employs around 525 people in Atlanta, London and Melbourne, Australia.
The rivalry between Oracle and SAP heated up after Ellison in December triumphed in a bitter and hostile takeover battle that stretched 18 months to acquire PeopleSoft Inc. for around $10.5 billion. That deal placed Oracle second behind SAP, Europe's largest software firm, in the overall market for business software.
Oracle's stock eased 7 cents, or 0.6%, to close at $12.38, while shares of Retek added 1 cent to end at $11.23 - 2 cents shy of Oracle's offer.
http://cbs.marketwatch.com/news/story.asp?guid=%7BC4EF799D-4C93-4CC0-8B6B-572D976E4625%7D&siteid=google&dist=google&dist=
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