Business briefs for June 18, 2003

Wednesday, June 18, 2003 | 11:30 a.m.

Oracle raises buyout price for competitor

REDWOOD SHORES, Calif. -- Oracle Corp. today raised its hostile takeover offer for rival business software maker PeopleSoft Inc. by nearly 24 percent to $6.3 billion.

Oracle said it would offer $19.50 a share in cash for all outstanding shares of PeopleSoft.

On June 6, Oracle offered $16 a share, or $5.1 billion, in an effort to take over its rival in the lucrative business software market.

PeopleSoft said that earlier offer was an attempt to derail its plan to combine with a third software maker, J.D. Edwards & Co., and took steps to derail the Oracle bid.

SARS hurts film sales, Kodak shares fall

ROCHESTER, N.Y. -- Eastman Kodak Co., already dragged down by a 2 1/2-year slide in film sales, warned today that the SARS outbreak in Asia will more than halve its operating profits in the second quarter. Its shares sank more than 10 percent in early trading.

The world's biggest photography company said it is now projecting operating earnings from continuing operations of 25 cents to 35 cents a share. In April, it had forecast operating earnings in the range of 60 to 80 cents a share.

The company is blaming lower-than-expected sales of film and photographic paper in Asia. It said sales of film in China during April and May were about half the amount sold in the year-ago period.