EC gets more time on Oracle probe

The European Commission today suspended its antitrust investigation of US software maker Oracle's $7.3bn (€5.7bn) hostile bid for rival PeopleSoft to gain more time to gather information.

European regulators faced a March 30 deadline to wrap up the probe, which they'll now complete at an unspecified date. The initial one-month probe was started last October.

The Commission will gather additional information from Oracle, PeopleSoft and other makers of software applications used by large companies to determine if competition will be affected in the future following the merger.