In brief: Microsoft extends life of old Windows

Plus: SAP launches RFID middleware; PeopleSoft extends anti-Oracle refund offer.

Microsoft has extended the life of Windows 98, Windows 98 SE and Windows ME until June 30, 2006. Support for Win 98 and 98 SE were set to expire Jan. 16, and Win ME would have expired by year-end. The company reversed its decision in response to customers’ needs and to bring Win 98 SE in line with its updated product life-cycle policy to provide support for seven years instead of the original four, the company says.

SAP last week launched software designed to help companies manage and communicate data captured by radio frequency identification tags.

SAP’s RFID middleware is designed to help companies build an infrastructure that can support wireless-enabled business processes. The Java-based RFID product set includes new SAP Auto-ID Infrastructure software, which integrates and synchronizes RFID data with other enterprise applications data; SAP Event Management software, which tracks and alerts users to supply chain events; and SAP Enterprise Portal. The software runs on SAP’s Web Application Server and is slated to be available mid-year.

PeopleSoft has extended a customer refund offer aimed at fending off Oracle’s hostile takeover attempt. The company will continue the return offer until March 31 or until Oracle terminates its $7.3 billion tender offer it said in a filing submitted to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission last week. PeopleSoft told the SEC last year that the program would expire Dec. 31.

PeopleSoft introduced its Customer Assurance Program after Oracle announced its takeover bid last June, saying that it would offer customers refunds of up to five times the price of the software they purchased if the company was acquired and the products were discontinued. The scheme could cost Oracle hundreds of millions of dollars in customer refunds, making its buy of PeopleSoft financially prohibitive.