Move is termed "routine" fact-finding NEW YORK – Following Connecticut’s filing last week of an antitrust lawsuit aimed at blocking Oracle’s attempted hostile takeover of PeopleSoft, representatives of several state attorneys general planned to meet Tuesday for a conference call to discuss the situation.Representatives of the state officials played down the significance of the call, emphasizing its exploratory nature.“Today’s conference call is a first-round, routine call to discuss the concerns of the states. This is a standard, fact-finding process,” said Mike Viesca, spokesman for Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott. Like Connecticut, Texas is a customer of PeopleSoft’s, with several state agencies using PeopleSoft’s software, Viesca said.Colorado Attorney General Ken Salazar’s office will also be participating in the call. Colorado is the home state of J.D. Edwards & Co., whose planned merger with PeopleSoft has been threatened by Oracle’s actions.Colorado has not made any decisions about whether it will become involved in legal action surrounding Oracle’s bid, said Ken Lane, a spokesman for Salazar’s office. “We’re just as curious as anyone else is at this point,” Lane said.Oracle Chief Executive Officer Larry Ellison continued this week evangelizing the proposed acquisition. At an Oracle customer event in London Tuesday, he reiterated Oracle’s intent to support PeopleSoft products for those customers who want to stick with them.Days after PeopleSoft announced it had made an offer to acquire J.D. Edwards, Oracle on June 6 made its initial unsolicited offer of $5.1 billion to buy rival PeopleSoft. Oracle later increased that bid to about $6.3 billion and has waged a full-out campaign to win shareholder approval of the hostile takeover attempt. Meanwhile also on Tuesday, Oracle slightly tweaked its tender offer for PeopleSoft, dropping a condition that required it to approve any changes to PeopleSoft’s takeover agreement with J.D. Edwards. PeopleSoft altered its arrangement with J.D. Edwards last week, sweetening the terms in an attempt to speed the acquisition.PeopleSoft dismissed Oracle’s waiver, saying in a written statement that the gesture “means nothing.” Software Development