The founder of PeopleSoft is reportedly putting his own cash into a fund to help out PeopleSoft workers laid off as a result of the firm's takeover by Oracle.

Oracle fought a bitter 18 month battle to buy PeopleSoft. The deal finally closed in December last year and Oracle warned it would cut up to 5,000 jobs.

David Duffield, PeopleSoft co-founder, is putting $10m into a fund to help out staff who have a hard time finding new jobs. Duffield quit shortly after the takeover was announced. The fund is called Safety Net and launched 1 April. The fund has already paid out $800,000 in grants to affected people. Duffield is worth about $1.4bn.

The fund is run by an ex-PeopleSoft manager Dave Ogden. He told the New York Times that staff, "are universally amazed that a former boss would reach out this way; they know he didn't have to." Ogden said Duffield wasn't giving interviews and didn't want any publicity about the fund.

Apparently, Duffield is planning a new software venture and shouldn't have any problems finding grateful ex-staff to work with him again.®

Related stories

Oracle talked takeover to Siebel (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/05/03/siebel_oracle_talks/)
Why do people hate Oracle? (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/04/20/why_do_people_hate_oracle/)
Peoplesoft eats at Oracle profits (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/03/23/oracle_q3_05_results/)