Recently installed Oracle president Chuck Phillips, the ex-Morgan Stanley analyst, is going to pitch the blessings of an Oracle-PeopleSoft marriage to the old JD Edwards user group Quest Direct, which invited both Oracle and PeopleSoft to explain themselves. PeopleSoft said it would give it a pass.

The meeting is set for next month. By then the Justice Department should have played its hand and if things work out true to form, the agency will move to block any takeover hostile or otherwise by Oracle, an action Oracle seems prepared to resist.

It remains to be seen whether Oracle will be fighting a two-front war. The European Union is now supposed to make its feelings known on March 11, a new schedule.

Meanwhile, just to keep things on the front burner, Larry Ellison has written a letter to PeopleSoft stockholders attacking PeopleSoft management as being selfish and greedy and reminding them that Oracle is offering them a premium.