Oracle Loses Bid to Exclude 3 Witnesses

Oracle Corp. failed to persuade a judge to exclude the testimony of three expert witnesses whom government attorneys will call during an antitrust trial over Oracle’s proposed $7.7-billion hostile takeover of PeopleSoft Inc.

U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker in San Francisco will allow testimony by Kenneth Elzinga, a University of Virginia economist, who will testify about how the deal would affect Oracle’s market share. Oracle also was unable to block the testimony of R. Preston McAfee, a University of Texas economist, and Marco Iansiti, a Harvard Business School professor.

The wrangling over witnesses came after four days of testimony in the Justice Department’s lawsuit.