The hotly pursued-but-reluctant PeopleSoft posted its earnings Thursday and much to Oracle's chagrin didn't do as badly as Larry Ellison hoped. Oracle had pictured PeopleSoft as being in distress. It earned $36.5 million, 11 cents, which was certainly better than its initial guidance of eight or nine cents. Revenues were $495 million, up 3% year-over-year. Those pesky license revenues that washed out its first quarter came in at roughly $112 million, down 15% year-over-year, but better than the $85 million to $95 million the company was originally talking about. The uptick is attributed to the money-back guarantees PeopleSoft has been handing out in case Oracle wins as well as to a simple backlash against Oracle. The company denied manipulating the results by pulling in future business and claimed its pipeline was 4% higher when Q3 started. Guess we'll see. Not everybody other than Oracle is buying it. Oracle claims the performance isn't sustainable. PeopleSoft CFO Kevin Parker said warding off Oracle cost three cents a share and would likely cost another two cents this quarter. Revenues this quarter are projected to run $470 million-$480 million with earnings of 13 or 14 cents. The company raised its Q2 guidance after Oracle started pursuing it and badmouthing its performance. Meanwhile, SAP, the nominal market leader folks are supposed to be competing against aside from the specter of Microsoft, turned in weaker-than-expected Q2 results, because of spending or lack of it on applications mostly.