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More important, Ellison's bid is indicative of an industry that is frantic to partner up. HP was scoffed at last year for spending $16 billion on Compaq--an effort, opponents said, to get big fast without thinking about the structure of the business. Now the HP deal looks prescient. No matter which organization PeopleSoft merges with, there will be one less company around. "This is like The Bachelor, reality TV brought to the software industry," says Benioff. "Each day you turn on the TV and see who's getting the next rose." --With reporting by Laura A. Locke/San Francisco and Dody Tsiantar/New York

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MICHAEL SINNOTT, a Roman Catholic priest who was abducted by Islamic separatists in the Philippines a month ago and released today, on the conditions he had to endure
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Quotes of the Day »

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MICHAEL SINNOTT, a Roman Catholic priest who was abducted by Islamic separatists in the Philippines a month ago and released today, on the conditions he had to endure

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