PeopleSoft Inc. and Knight Trading Group Inc. are two of the latest companies to issue earnings warnings as companies gear up to report their June quarterly results.
PeopleSoft said second-quarter earnings will come in about 35 percent below expectations. The software company added, however, that earnings will come in at less than half of the amount the company forecast in April after items such as 2 cents a share in “Oracle costs,” as well as amortization and restructuring charges, are included.
The company blamed Oracle Corp.’s hostile takeover bid for harming its business. “The extensive publicity of the antitrust trial during the last month of our quarter was impossible to completely overcome,” said chief executive officer Craig Conway in a statement. “We believe the adverse impact to our business has been substantial, with even greater impact this past month.”
Charlie Di Bona, an analyst with Sanford Bernstein, played down the Oracle angle. “PeopleSoft has deeper issues than the Oracle fight,” he told Reuters. “Their integration with J.D. Edwards has been our concern all along.”
Knight Trading said its quarterly earnings would come in below Wall Street forecasts due to poor market conditions.