Sitting in an overstuffed armchair in a swank 15th-floor suite in New York's Carlyle Hotel, Oracle Corp. Chief Executive Lawrence J. Ellison can't suppress a grin. The object of his glee: Oracle's shocking $5.1 billion hostile bid on June 6 for rival software maker PeopleSoft Inc. If completed, it will be the largest software merger ever. And it could reshape the $35.8 billion market for run-the-business applications, making Oracle a credible No. 2 to leader SAP. In the past, Ellison always pooh-poohed large mergers―Oracle didn't need them, he said. But now, as the tech industry starts to turn up, Ellison sees a chance to knock off a fierce competitor and set up Oracle for the future. "The strong are getting stronger," he says. "This is a consolidating industry, and in a consolidating industry, you need scale to compete."
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