After months of acrimonious wrangling, PeopleSoft announced today that it has finally acceded to Oracle's hostile takeover and accepted a $10bn offer.

PeopleSoft said that after discussions "throughout the weekend" its board of directors, based on the recommendation of the Transaction Committee of Independent Directors, has approved a definitive merger agreement with Oracle.

Under the terms of the deal, a subsidiary of Oracle Corporation will acquire all PeopleSoft shares for $26.50 per share in cash. The total value of the transaction is approximately $10.3bn.

Oracle said that it will revise its tender offer by 15 December, which will remain open through to 28 December unless extended in accordance with the merger agreement.

The PeopleSoft board recommended that shareholders tender their shares into this offer.

Following the completion of the tender offer, Oracle said it intends to complete a merger in which all remaining PeopleSoft shares will be acquired for $26.50 per share.

George 'Skip' Battle, chairman of PeopleSoft's Transaction Committee, said: "After careful consideration, we believe this revised offer provides good value for PeopleSoft stockholders and represents a substantial increase in value from October.

"This has been a long, emotional struggle, and our employees have consistently performed well under the most challenging of circumstances.

"The board salutes our employees for their outstanding dedication to PeopleSoft and is grateful to our customers who have continued to buy our products and stand by us during these uncertain times."

Oracle chief executive Larry Ellison added: "This merger works because we will have more customers, which increases our ability to invest more in applications development and support.

"We intend to enhance PeopleSoft 8 and develop a PeopleSoft 9, and enhance JD Edwards 5 and develop a JD Edwards 6. We intend to immediately extend and improve support for existing JD Edwards and PeopleSoft customers worldwide."

Oracle and PeopleSoft both promised to stay all pending litigation, and will dismiss such litigation permanently following the consummation of the offer.

The offer is still subject to at least a majority of the fully diluted outstanding shares being validly tendered into the offer, and to a limited number of other customary conditions.