"They were very fearful about how the judge was going to rule," Mr. Cohen said. Judge Leo Strine Jr. called the settlement "a happy result" in a hearing in Wilmington yesterday. Oracle promised to update People-Soft's applications for 10 years, and Mr. Ellison said he will create a "successor" product that will combine features from each. That product won't be out for 30 months to 36 months, Mr. Ellison said on yesterday's call. SAP controls 39% of the market for business application software. Oracle and PeopleSoft together have 25%.