BEA rejects $6.7 billion Oracle offer

By Jim Finkle

BOSTON (Reuters) - Business software maker BEA Systems Inc BEAS.O rejected a $6.7 billion takeover bid from Oracle Corp (ORCL.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) on Friday, throwing the company into play by saying the unsolicited offer was too low.

Shares rose 38 percent, above a five-year high, and activist investor Carl Icahn, BEA's biggest shareholder and a vocal critic of management, said he was pleased by Oracle's offer but called for higher bids.

Shares of BEA, which makes software that helps other programs interact, rose to $18.82, nearly $2 above Oracle's $17 offer that was made on October 9 but not disclosed until Friday.

"BEA is worth substantially more," the company's board said in a letter to Oracle.

Oracle said it remained "committed" to its proposed $17 per share offer and was ready to proceed with a "friendly" transaction.

But in a sign of acrimony between the two sides, BEA took issue with a letter to BEA from Oracle President Charles Phillips, which was made public.

In the letter, Phillips said BEA had canceled a Friday meeting that was intended to result in a deal by Monday and declined attempts to reschedule.

"Let me clarify your misunderstanding," William Klein, BEA's vice president of business planning and development, said in a response to Phillips.