On the stand for the second day in a Delaware court room, PeopleSoft director, Steven Goldby, testified that, if the price was right, there was a "high certainty" that a deal could close quickly, according to a report by the Associated Press.

Oracle has attempted to buy PeopleSoft for 16 months, and is challenging two of PeopleSoft's takeover defences, a "poison pill" and a customer refund programme, in the Delaware Chancery Court.

During his first day of testimony on Monday, Goldby said that, while then PeopleSoft CEO, Craig Conway, slammed the door on Oracle, the board never did the same.

"Never did we imply that there was no set of conditions under which we could imagine being acquired by Oracle," Goldby testified on Monday.

Oracle is offering $21 per share for PeopleSoft, making a total offer of $7,7bn. The company's board of directors has unanimously rejected each of Oracle's offers as inadequate.

Speculation that PeopleSoft's board may be warming to Oracle's offer peaked last week when the board dismissed Conway due to a "loss of confidence" in the CEO's ability to lead the company.

Conway adamantly opposed the Oracle bid.

"We will never sell, there is no condition, no price at which we will ever sell this company," Conway had said.

Oracle overcame a major obstacle in its quest for PeopleSoft last month when a federal judge in San Francisco rejected the US Department of Justice's (DoJ's) effort to block the takeover on anti-trust grounds.

The DoJ last week said it will not appeal that ruling.

The last regulatory obstacle for Oracle is winning the approval of the European Commission, where officials say Commissioner Mario Monti wants to rule on the case before his tenure ends on November 1.

It seems unlikely that Monti could veto the merger by the end of October, observers say, raising expectations that the Commission will support it.

Shares of PeopleSoft were at $22,88, up by 3,06%, in mid-afternoon trading on the Nasdaq stock exchange Tuesday. Oracle shares were at $12,14, up by 2,27%.