The Justice Department will call executives from Microsoft Corp. and a dozen other major corporations to testify against Oracle Corp."s hostile bid to buy rival software company PeopleSoft, according to court documents. With a trial only weeks away, the department submitted a witness list in federal court late on Tuesday that includes Microsoft executive Douglas Burgum, as well as representatives of big corporate customers, such as BearingPoint, DaimlerChrysler, and Kerr-McGee.
The department filed suit earlier this year to block the deal after concluding that it would hobble competition in the market for software sold to large business customers to manage finances, human resources, sales forces and other functions.