Oracle's hostile bid for PeopleSoft is currently under review by Canadian antitrust regulators, adding yet another antitrust hurdle for the database-software maker to jump. The investigation by Canada's Competition Bureau is not a surprise, given the size of the $7.25 billion buyout proposal and Oracle's large presence in Canada--it has 13 offices and more than 1,000 employees. But it means that the software maker has to get approval from yet another regulatory agency. It already faces examination from the U.S. Department of Justice, a large group of state attorneys general and the European Union.

"When we become aware of a transaction like this, we commence our work like we have done in this particular case," said Robert Lancop, assistant deputy commissioner in the Competition Bureau's mergers branch. Canada's antitrust bureau automatically reviews mergers if the combined companies will have sales equivalent to at least $400 million in imports, exports or within Canada, and if the merger price comes to at least 50 million Canadian dollars (about $35.9 million), Lancop said. He noted that there may be other circumstances that may warrant an antitrust review of a merger, even if it falls below those trigger points.