It was tough to take Oracle seriously when it pledged that last month's $24-a-share offer for PeopleSoft was “final”. Sure enough, Oracle added $2.50 to get rid of its software rival's poison-pill defence. At least the saga is over. But Larry Ellison performed some serious gymnastics to get there.

Over 18 months the offer jumped from $16 to $26, fell back to $21, before settling on Monday at $26.5. Oracle's chief executive failed to get his target on the cheap. He also managed an impressive strategic back-flip. Instead of the original plan to torch PeopleSoft as a business and simply take on the maintenance revenue stream, Oracle will now develop new generations of PeopleSoft products alongside its own applications software.