PeopleSoft scores blow to fend off Oracle bid

Business software maker PeopleSoft Inc. took control Friday of J.D. Edwards & Co., adding to a recent barrage of blows delivered to Oracle Corp.’s hostile takeover bid.

Oracle remains determined to buy PeopleSoft, even though that objective will now require taking on something that it didn’t originally want — Denver-based J.D. Edwards.

“This is huge for us; we’re all walking on thin air,” PeopleSoft CEO Craig Conway said Friday.

Oracle has extended its $19.50-per-share offer through Aug. 15. As of July 11, about 14 percent of PeopleSoft’s stock had been tendered to Oracle.

Automotive

Ford set to reduce white-collar work force

Ford Motor Co. said Friday it planned to cut 10 percent of costs related to its salaried automotive work force by the end of the year. A Ford source said up to 2,000 white-collar jobs could be eliminated.

The cost-cutting effort comes as the world’s No. 2 automaker tries to keep its restructuring plan, launched a year and a half ago, on track. Ford said earlier this week it slashed expenses by $1.3 billion in the second quarter; its goal is to reduce costs by $2.5 billion by the end of 2003.

Ford officials declined to give a specific number of jobs targeted in the plan announced Friday.

Investing

Greenspan takes losses in struggling economy

Americans who have watched interest on savings shrink with rock-bottom interest rates are in good company: Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan has taken a hit, too.

Greenspan’s 2002 financial disclosure form showed that income from his no-frills investments — Treasury securities, money market accounts and savings and checking accounts — totaled between $55,000 and $139,000. That’s down from the range of $106,000 to $309,000 Greenspan reported in investment income for 2001.

Computers

Dell to change name

Dell Computer Corp. shareholders approved a proposal Friday to change the company’s name to Dell Inc., a move that management felt better reflected its broader range of technology products and services.

Dell stockholders, gathered Friday in Austin for their annual meeting, endorsed the change for the nation’s largest computer maker.

CEO Michael Dell said the company’s focus on servers and storage systems was largely accountable for the need for a name change.

Wall Street

UMB earnings fall

Shares of Kansas City, Mo-based UMB Financial Corp. rose 1.7 percent Friday after the company announced earnings of 62 cents per share for the quarter. That was down a penny from the same period a year ago. UMB operates a bank in Lawrence.