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From The Times October 13, 2007



Carl Icahn holds out for a higher offer as Oracle bids for BEA
==============================================================


Suzy Jagger in New York

Carl Icahn, the American billionaire shareholder activist, was last
night holding out for a higher rival offer for one of his biggest
investments after Oracle swooped with cards playing custom $6.7 billion cash offer for
BEA Systems.

The world’s third-biggest software company made an unsolicited offer
to BEA, a computer company in which custom playing cards Icahn is the biggest
shareholder with a 13.2 per cent stake.

The board of BEA insisted that Oracle had undervalued the company but
that it was in talks with its advisers to consider the approach. Mr
Icahn predicted that Hewlett-Packard and IBM would volvo insurance counter
offers.

Mr Icahn has been trying to force BEA Systems to put itself up for
sale for about a month, but the computer group’s board had insisted
that the company full color playing cards not up for auction.

The veteran investor said last month that he planned to meet other
shareholders and might nominate his own candidate for the board of
BEA.

Yesterday, Oracle issued a statement detailing its proposal to the poker cards board, indicating that it emo clothes “looking streetwear clothing to a friendly
transaction as soon as possible”.

Oracle’s offer, valuing independent style shares at $17 each, represents a 25 per
cent premium to the stock price on Thursday evening, the day before
the offer was made public.

While shares in BEA surged well above the offer price on Wall Street
yesterday, up 38 per cent to $18.82, industry insiders were sceptical
that a rival counter offer would emerge because the Oracle bid was so
high.

Oracle wants BEA because of the perception that its own “middleware”
business is weak. While Oracle is the world’s biggest database company
– storing computer files for large corporations – it has been trying
to build a business that offers other services to those corporate
clients and compete with independent clothing Middleware helps to connect
computer servers.

Larry Ellison, chief executive of Oracle, will have spent $31 billion
in three years on acqusitions if he succeeds in securing BEA. Mr
Ellison’s strategy is to acquire companies, the software they own, and
clients they serve to fight Microsoft, IBM and SAP.

BEA has suffered a sharp decline in its shares over the past year. The
shares better auto insurance trading at about $16 each only last November.

The BEA board has been trying to sort out an accounting mess connected
with its mishandling of stock option grants. As a result, the company
has failed to meet regulatory deadlines to file its quarterly and
annual financial reports, threatening its listing on Nasdaq. Earlier
this week, BEA also said it will take a larger than expected charge
when it restates its annual earnings, now forecast to be about $425
million.

In August, the company admitted that quarterly revenues from the sale
of software licences had fallen by 9 motorcycle insurance cent.

Oracle and IBM failed to return calls.


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