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Oracle in its pursuit of PeopleSoft is seeking to add more court victories to its arsenal. The actions centre on "poison pills" used by PeopleSoft in its bid defence.

The first is a shareholder plan, common amongst US companies who are bid for. The second is a guarantee to customers for a pay-out in the event that PeopleSoft is taken over.

For a bid value of $7.7bn, Oracle might have to pay over $2.2b to honour the guarantees. Hence the court case.

Delaware, which is most US corporations are registered has traditionally backed poison pills. However corporate governance has even made it there.

Winning the case would be important, especially in the light of wins in California and the expected drop of action by the European Commission.

In a separate development, Steve Ballmer, Microsoft CEO has ruled a white knight bid for PeopleSoft. In an interview in the Financial Times he compares PeopleSoft unfavourably with arch-rival SAP.

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