text: Antitrust Ruling Reverberates (washingtonpost.com) washingtonpost.com - Oracle Corp. was not the only beneficiary of a federal judge's ruling late Thursday that it could proceed with its  #36;7.7 billion hostile takeover bid for software rival PeopleSoft Inc. Yesterday, the stock prices of numerous software firms surged during widespread speculation that the antitrust ruling could spark a wave of consolidation in the industry.