The friendly offer by PeopleSoft, which aims to merge with J.D. Edwards, runs to July 17.

PeopleSoft revised and accelerated its offer for J.D. Edwards this week after the software giant Oracle Corp. launched a surprise, bitterly-contested bid to take over PeopleSoft.

PeopleSoft has accused Oracle of launching a sham offer to scupper the PeopleSoft takeover of J.D. Edwards.

But Oracle on Thursday showed its seriousness by boosting its bid for PeopleSoft by 1.2 billion dollars to 6.3 billion dollars.

Oracle also announced it would sue PeopleSoft, accusing its board of failing to act in the shareholders' best interests and demanding it remove a "poison pill" threatening the acquisition.

Authorities in Connecticut, meanwhile, said they would sue Oracle to halt its hostile bid on antitrust grounds. PeopleSoft and J.D. Edwards have already launched legal action against Oracle.

Despite the increasingly tangled clash with Oracle, PeopleSoft proceeded with plans to take control of its smaller rival J.D. Edwards.

Its offer valued each J.D. Edwards share at 7.05 dollars in cash, plus the value of 43 percent of a PeopleSoft share. Based on last week's share market close, the offer was worth about 1.75 billion dollars.

The deal would "significantly" boost PeopleSoft's 2004 earnings per share, but only after excluding the costs of a writedown linked to the takeover of J.D. Edwards, PeopleSoft said.

On Monday, PeopleSoft had announced it was accelerating its plans to merge with J.D. Edwards, bringing forward the completion deadline slightly to September 30.

PeopleSoft threw in 850 million dollars cash as part of the formerly all-stock offer, removing the need for a vote by shareholders of either firm for the deal to go through.

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