Oracle eyed other deals.

The article discusses news from the computer industry. Before it settled on People Soft Inc. in 2003, Oracle Corp. considered acquiring one of more than a half-dozen other high-profile software companies, according to internal documents presented in June 2004 in a trial to determine if the U.S. Department of Justice can block the People Soft deal. Oracle, in reaction to what it saw as an increasingly competitive IT market, was intent on making an acquisition that would make the company a serious platform competitor to IBM and Microsoft Corp., the documents read. In fact, in April 2003, Oracle's board of directors entertained a list of nine software companies, including BEA Systems Inc., Sybase Inc., Documenturn Inc. and business intelligence developer Business Objects S.A. Enterprise software provider People Soft, of Pleasanton, California, also featured prominently in the presentation, as did business software makers J.D. Edwards & Co., Lawson Software Inc., Cerner Corp. and Systems & Computer Technology Corp.