Companies hope to speed up acquisition, stave off Oracle's bid to buy PeopleSoft PeopleSoft commenced its exchange offer for all shares of J.D. Edwards Thursday, in an effort to speed up the $1.75 billion acquisition in the face of Oracle’s stepped-up bid to buy PeopleSoft.Under the offer, PeopleSoft is offering J.D. Edwards shareholders cash or PeopleSoft common stock for their shares in the Denver-based enterprise software provider. The deal has been sweetened since PeopleSoft’s initial $1.7 billion, all-stock offer for the company, in the hopes of closing the transaction as soon as possible.PeopleSoft and J.D. Edwards are attempting to head off Oracle’s bid to buy PeopleSoft, which could sink their merger. Still, the companies don’t expect the transaction to close until the third quarter of this year, and Oracle has shown no intentions of backing down from its efforts to snap up PeopleSoft.In fact, the Redwood City, Calif., company announced that it was increasing its bid for PeopleSoft to $6.3 billion Wednesday, while at the same time saying it was suing PeopleSoft, its board of directors and J.D. Edwards for “eliminating” shareholders ability to accept its offer. [PeopleSoft said that its exchange offer for J.D. Edwards shares would expire at midnight EDT on July 17, unless extended. Software Development